I 
 
 UC-NRLF 
 
 B 3 332 EDS 
 
IN STORY-LAND 
 
 BY 
 
 ELIZABETH HARRISON, 
 
 Principal of the Chicago Kindergarten College. 
 
 EIGHTEENTH EDITION. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 CENTRAL PUBLISHING COMPANY, 
 
 258 Wabash Avenue, 
 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the 1895, by 
 
 ELIZABETH HARRISON, 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
 Btcktold /. Curwen & Sons, Ltd. 
 
 Printing <f Book lift. Co. Lond England . 
 
 St. Louit, Mo. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 It is not expected that the stories in tins 
 book will be told in their present form* to. 
 Kindergarten children, as experience has 
 shown that each Kindergartner must modify 
 her story to suit the needs and capacities of 
 her children, and must learn to take from 
 any story just so much as may be helpful to 
 her in creating a fresh story for the occasion. 
 It is hoped, however, that they may serve the 
 mother in her home reading with her group 
 of children, and also that my colaborers in 
 primary and second grade schools may some- 
 times use them for Friday afternoon read- 
 ings. 
 
 A friendly critic has suggested that I add 
 "One story a day is enough for a child." 
 This is certainly the case if the story is to 
 make any deep or lasting impression. 
 
 E. H. 
 
 285589 
 
I LOVINGLY DEDICATE THIS BOOK TO 
 MY FRIEND, 
 
 late Siffant) $u!jarbott, 
 
 who, from childhood, through girlhood, Jar into 
 womanhood, illumined my life with a radiant love 
 and sympathy that made every ideal seem possible, 
 and with whose four little children I have many a 
 time journeyed into STORY-LAND. 
 
 ELIZABETH HARRISON. 
 Chicago, 111. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT . . 9 
 
 THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT; OR, THE 
 
 LITTLE BLIND SISTER 20 
 
 PRINCE HARWEDA AND THE MAGIC PRIS- 
 ON 31 
 
 THE LITTLE GRAY GRANDMOTHER ; OR, 
 
 THE ENCHANTED MIRROR .... 47 
 
 LITTLE BLESSED-EYES ; OR, THE FAIRY'S 
 
 BIRTHDAY GIFT ....... 56 
 
 THE FAIR WHITE CITY; OR, A STORY 
 OF THE PAST, PRESENT, AND FU- 
 TURE 65 
 
 THE LOVING CUP WHICH WAS MADE OF 
 
 IRON 78 
 
 HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS . . 86 
 
 STORY OF THE SMALL GREEN CATERPIL- 
 LAR AND THE BEAUTIFUL WHITE 
 
 BUTTERFLY 96 
 
 (vii) 
 
viii CONTENTS. 
 
 THE DISCONTENTED MILL WINDOW . . 103 
 THE STRANGE STORY OF A WONDERFUL 
 
 SEA-GOD 113 
 
 THE VISION OF DANTE 124 
 
 STORIES OF HEROES. 
 
 FA OB 
 
 How LITTLE CEDRIC BECAME A KNIGHT 143 
 STORY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS FOR 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN 161 
 
 A STORY OF DECORATION DAY FOR THE 
 
 LITTLE CHILDREN OF TO-DAY . .178 
 OLD JOHNNY APPLESEED 187 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME 
 GIANT. 
 
 Near the top of a high, high mountain there 
 lived a great giant. He was a very wonderful 
 giant indeed. From the door of his rocky cave 
 he could look into the distance and see for miles 
 and miles over the surrounding country, even 
 to the point where the land touched the great 
 ocean, yet so clearly that he could observe the 
 smile or the frown on a child's face three 
 miles away. More wonderful still, he could 
 look through the darkest cloud which ever 
 covered the sky and see the sun still shining 
 beyond and above it. And then his hands I 
 Oh how I wish you could have seen his hands ! 
 They were so large and strong. Such wonder- 
 ful hands, too ! With them he could lift up a 
 rock as big as this room and set it to one side. 
 Sometimes his fingers could make the sweetest 
 kind of music come from a crude violin which 
 he had fashioned for himself. 
 
 Then, too, ho knew so much, and he knew 
 it well. I don't believe that ten of the 
 wisest men that our universities ever sent out 
 
 (9) 
 
10 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 could have told you such extraordinary things. 
 He knew all about every plant which grew on 
 the mountain, and just where the rich mines 
 of gold and silver were hidden inside the 
 mountain. He could have pointed out to you 
 which pebbles could be polished into emeralds 
 and topazes and sapphires and which were 
 worthless. Had you asked him he could have 
 taken you to the secret spring from which 
 flowed the sparkling stream of healing waters, 
 sought by all the sick folks in the country 
 round. He was such a wonderful giant that it 
 would take me the whole day to tell you of all 
 the things which he could do but he was 
 lame and somehow could never get down the 
 mountain to where the ordinary mortal lived. 
 So for ages he had been alone upon his moun- 
 tain top, seeing all the people below him, 
 loving them with all his heart, and knowing 
 just what would help them, yet never being 
 able to come near to them. 
 
 In one of the valleys of the great mountain 
 lived a little maiden called Beta. She was so 
 small that most people thought her a young 
 child and so weak that she could not even 
 carry a bucket of water from the well to the 
 house. Then too, she was a very plain look- 
 ing little girl, not at all pretty. Her mother 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT. 11 
 
 used to say to her :. *' 'My~dear daughter, you 
 are neither rich, nor clever, nor beautiful, 
 therefore you must learn to be useful to 
 others if you would be loved." 
 
 The little maiden often wondered how jshe 
 was to be of any use to the people about her. 
 She would say to herself, "I have no money 
 to give to them ; my hands are not skilled 
 enough to do much work for them and my 
 brain is not quick, therefore I can not give 
 them beautiful thoughts which will help them." 
 Still she was a loving-hearted little girl, and 
 love, you know, always finds a way to be 
 helpful. 
 
 One day it occurred to her that she could 
 gather some wild flowers and take them to 
 the old woman who lived all alone at the end 
 of the village and who was so deaf that no- 
 body ever tried to talk to her. 
 
 With this thought in mind she started out 
 in search of the brightest flowers she could 
 find. She climbed the mountain side and 
 gathered a whole armful of beautiful yellow 
 golden-rod and purple asters and red Indian 
 pinks. These she carried joyfully to the 
 little house at the end of the village. They 
 made the dingy old room take on a look of 
 warmth and happiness. Gay as they were, 
 
12 7^V STORY-LAND. 
 
 however, the face of the old deaf woman was 
 brighter still as she said, "Bless you, my 
 child, bless you! Who but little Beta would 
 ever have thought of bringing flowers to me." 
 
 The next day Beta thought she would take 
 some flowers to the blind weaver who made all 
 the carpets that the villagers used. " This 
 time," she said to herself, " I must hunt for 
 the flowers which have a sweet odor, as he 
 cannot see their gay colors." So she gathered 
 some wild roses and some sweet scented violets 
 and some witch hazel. As she entered his 
 small shop he lifted his head from his work 
 and said, " Ah me, what is this I smell? It 
 has been many a day since I have been near 
 enough to the mountain's own flowers to 
 breathe in their perfume." Beta placed them 
 in a mug near his loom and as she ran home 
 she was very happy, yet she hardly knew why. 
 
 After this she went daily to the mountain to 
 gather flowers for some dear soul who could 
 not go out to get them. Sometimes they were 
 taken to the gentle mother who had so many 
 children that she never found time to leave her 
 homo. Sometimes they went to the village 
 church and made the Sunday seem more beau- 
 tiful than other days. Each time she climbed 
 higher and higher as she had soon learned that 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT. 13 
 
 the rarer and more beautiful flowers could only 
 be found far up the mountain. At last one 
 day, when she had climbed farther than she 
 had ever ventured before, she suddenly came 
 upon the lame giant sitting on a large stump 
 in front of his cave. In his hand was his 
 violin, but he was not playing ; his face wore 
 a thoughtful, almost a sad look. 
 
 Beta was so frightened that the flowers 
 dropped from her hands and she nearly 
 stopped breathing. She had never before in 
 all her life, seen a real, live giant. He was so 
 big that she could hardly believe her own eyes 
 as she looked at him. Her first impulse was 
 to run down the mountain as quickly as pos- 
 sible, but somehow, the very sight of such a 
 wonderful being held her spell-bound, so she 
 stood motionless, gazing at him from behind a 
 huge rock. 
 
 Soon he put his violin in position under his 
 chin and taking up his bow began to play. He 
 played so softly and sweetly that little Beta 
 felt sure he could not be wicked and cruel as 
 were the giants she had read about. Little by 
 little she came shyly toward him. As soon as 
 he saw her he laid down his violin and held 
 out his hand, smiling as he did so. " Come 
 near to me, child," he said, " I will not hurt 
 
14 /AT STORY-LAND. 
 
 you." Beta thus encouraged, came slowly 
 forward. 
 
 " Tell me, little one/' said he gently, " from 
 whence came you, and how did you find your 
 way so far up the mountain side ? None but 
 strong mountain guides have ever before come 
 near my cave/' " I was gathering flowers," 
 answered little Beta, " and I thought I might 
 find some blue forget-me-nots among these 
 rocks." " So you have learned already, have 
 you, that forget-me-nots can best be found 
 near the mountain tops." With that he 
 laughed softly to himself. His laugh was such 
 a kindly laugh that it took away all fear and 
 made Beta feel quite at home with him. 
 " What is your name?" said she, " and why 
 do you live up here? Do you not sometimes 
 get lonesome ? ' ' The great giant did not 
 answer her, but began talking about some- 
 thing else. In a short time he had led 
 the little maiden into telling him all about 
 herself and the people of the village and 
 the flower gathering. It was not until he 
 rose to point out to her where forget-me- 
 nots could be found in abundance, that she 
 noticed lie was lame. She had soon gather- 
 ed a whole apron full of the beautiful 
 flowers and bidding him good-bye she 
 climbed down the mountain, sometimes 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT. 15 
 
 slipping and sliding, but always holding fast to 
 the hem of her apron that the flowers might 
 not be lost. 
 
 Many times after that she climbed the 
 mountain to the cave of the giant and sat on a 
 little stone at his feet while he told her stories 
 of things which had happened in the village 
 long before any of the people who lived in it 
 were born. She loved best to listen to the 
 tales of gods and heroes of the olden times. 
 Then when she was tired of stories he would 
 show her where the flowers grew most pro- 
 fusely. Little by little he taught her to know 
 the herbs which were good for sick people. 
 Oftentimes they were very humble looking 
 plants which she would have passed by un- 
 noticed. She soon learned how to brew these 
 into drinks and medicines for the feeble and 
 sick folks of the village. Sometimes, though 
 not often, he would play on his violin for her. 
 He always played such strange, weird music 
 that it made her think of Siegfried, and of 
 Lohengrin and the white swan, or of other 
 beautiful beings whom she had never seen, but 
 of whom she had heard. 
 
 Each day when she returned to her home she 
 told the people of the village about the won- 
 derful giant who lived so high up the mountain 
 
16 Itf STORY-LAND. 
 
 that its top could be seen from his cave door, 
 but they only laughed and said, " Little Beta 
 has been dreaming." Even after they had 
 learned to cull upon her for herbs with which 
 to poultice bruised limbs and strengthen weak 
 stomachs or quiet restless fevers, they gave no 
 heed to what she said about the giant. 
 
 Years passed by and the little maiden still 
 continued to climb the mountain to learn of 
 the lame giant more and more of what was 
 wonderful and beautiful in the world about 
 her. Much climbing in the open air had made 
 her strong and well. As time wore on, she 
 unconsciously made a path up the mountain 
 side, which of course caused the climbing to be 
 much easier than in the days when she had 
 to scramble over the rocks and push aside the 
 underbrush to make her way up. The path 
 too, was firm and smooth now, with no stones 
 suddenly slipping from beneath her feet and 
 causing painful falls. 
 
 At last one day Beta persuaded two or three 
 of her companions to go with her to the cave. 
 Now that there was a respectable path, the 
 undertaking did not seem so foolish as in the 
 days when Beta had gone scrambling up the 
 rocks, nobody knew whither. So they laugh- 
 ingly consented to go, more to please Beta, 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT. 17 
 
 whom they had learned to love, than with any 
 expectation of seeing a real giant at the end of 
 the journey. Therefore they were greatly 
 astonished when, after much climbing, a sudden 
 turn in the road brought them face to fnce 
 with a being five times as large as an ordinary 
 man, whose strong hands looked as if they 
 might easily crush any one of them, yet whose 
 kindly face re-assured them. 
 
 The great giant received them pleasantly, as 
 they were little Beta's friends, and soon they 
 were eagerly plying him with all sorts of 
 questions. " Did he know those strange crea- 
 tures, the centaurs, whose bodies were half 
 man and half horse? They had heard that 
 these centaurs lived somewhere among the 
 mountains, and that they could teach any boy 
 how to become a great hero. Had he ever 
 ridden on the back of Pegasus, the flying 
 horse, whom none but giants could ride 
 without tumbling off? Did he ever drink 
 from the fountain of youth which had the 
 power to keep mortals from growing old? 
 Was it true that he could change the dirt 
 beneath their feet into golden money? " All 
 these and many other questions they asked 
 him and to each he gave an answer. 
 
 That night, when they returned to the village, 
 
 2 \ 
 
18 JN STORY-LAND 
 
 they could talk of nothing else but the wonder- 
 ful giant whose home was near the mountain 
 top. Next day a larger number of the villagers 
 climbed the mountain to the cave, and each 
 succeeding day more were persuaded to make 
 the journey, until everybody in the little valley, 
 that is, everybody who could climb, had visited 
 the lame giant. Then they began to discuss 
 how they could open a road up the mountain 
 to the cave. Finally they decided to unite 
 together and build a broad, winding road, one 
 wide enough to let horses and vehicles pass 
 each other. " Then," said they, " we can 
 take our dear old grandsires and granddames 
 and even our little children up to the good 
 giant that he may teach them also." 
 
 Soon the whole village was humming with 
 the sound of pickaxe and spade. Everybody 
 worked and everybody was eager and happy 
 in the work. It took a long time, several 
 years, in fact, before the road was completed, 
 but it was done at last and it proved a greater 
 blessing than they had anticipated, for not 
 only could they now drive up the mountain to 
 the lame giant's cave, but he was able to come 
 down to them I This was a thing of which they 
 had never dreamed, and great was the rejoic- 
 ing on the occasion of his first visit to them. 
 
LITTLE BETA AND THE LAME GIANT. 19 
 
 Years passed by and the little valley became 
 the most famous spot on the whole earth, so 
 rich was its soil, so remarkable the products it 
 sent out. People came from all over the land 
 now to visit the lame giant and learn of him 
 some of the wonderful secrets which had been 
 hidden for centuries, and all loved him and 
 revered him. 
 
 My story would not be complete if I did not 
 tell you that he too became less lame, since the 
 journeys up and down the mountain helped to 
 make him much stronger. 
 
 Perhaps some day you may go to this valley 
 yourselves and learn how to do many wonder- 
 ful things, which now seem impossible to you. 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT; 
 
 OR, 
 
 THE LITTLE BLIND SISTER. 
 
 Once upon a time there liv^d a child whose 
 name was Avilla. She was sweet and loving, 
 and fair to look upon, and had everything in 
 the world to make her happy, but she had 
 a little blind sister, and Avilla could not be 
 perfectly happy as long as her sister's eyes 
 were closed so that she could not see God's 
 beautiful world, nor enjoy His bright sun- 
 shine. Little Avilla kept wondering if there 
 was not something that she could do which 
 would open this blind sister's eyes. 
 
 At last, one day, she heard of an old, old 
 woman, nobody knew how old, who had lived 
 for hundreds of years in a dark cave, not many 
 miles away. This queer, old woman knew a 
 secret enchantment, by means of which the 
 blind could receive their sight. The child, 
 Avilla, asked her parents' permission to make 
 a journey to the cave, in order that she might 
 try to persuade the old woman to tell her this 
 (20) 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. 21 
 
 secret. " Then/' exclaimed she, joyfully, 
 " my dear sister need sit no longer in dark- 
 ness." Her parents gave a somewhat unwill- 
 .ing consent, as they heard many strange and 
 wicked stories about the old woman. At last, 
 however, one fine spring morning, Avilla 
 started on her journey. She had a long 
 distance to walk, but the happy thoughts in 
 her heart made the time pass quickly, and the 
 soft, cool breeze seemed to be whispering a 
 song to her all the way. 
 
 When she came to the mouth of the cave, it 
 looked so dark and forbidding that she almost 
 feared to enter it, but the thought of her 
 little blind sister gave her courage, and she 
 walked in. At first she could see nothing, 
 for all the sunshine was shut out by the frown- 
 ing rocks that guarded the entrance. Soon, 
 however, she discerned the old woman sitting 
 on a stone chair, spinning a pile of flax into 
 a fine, fine thread. She seemed bent nearly 
 double with age, and her face wore a look of 
 worry and care, which made her appear still 
 older. 
 
 The child Avilla came close to her side, and 
 thought, she is so aged that she must be hard 
 of hearing. The old woman did not turn her 
 head, nor stop her spinning. Avilla waited a 
 
22 JJV STOKY-LAND. 
 
 moment, and then took fresh courage, and said, 
 " I have come to ask you if you will tell me 
 how I can cure my blind sister?" The 
 strange creature turned and stared at her as if. 
 she were very much surprised ; she then spoke 
 in a deep, hollow voice, so hollow that it 
 sounded as if she had not spoken for a very 
 long time. " Oh," said she with a sneer, " I 
 can tell you well enough, but you'll not do it. 
 People who can see, trouble themselves very 
 little about those who are blind I " This last 
 was said with a sigh, and then she scowled 
 at Avilla until the child's heart began to 
 beat very fast. But the thought of her little 
 blind sister made her brave again, and she 
 cried out, " Oh please tell me. I will do any- 
 thing to help my dear sister I" The old 
 woman looked long and earnestly at her this 
 time. She then stooped down and searched 
 in the heap of the fine-spun thread which lay 
 at her side until she found the end of it. 
 This she held out to the child, saying, " Take 
 this and carry it all around the world, and 
 when you have done that, come to me and I 
 will show you how your blind sister may be 
 cured." Little Avilla thanked her and eagerly 
 seized the tiny thread, and wrapping it care- 
 fully around her hand that she might not lose 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. 23 
 
 it, turned and hastened out of the close, damp 
 cave. 
 
 She had not traveled far before she looked 
 back to be sure the thread had not broken, it 
 was so thin. Imagine her surprise to see that 
 instead of its being a gray thread of spun flax, 
 it was a thread of golden light, that glittered 
 and shone in the sunlight, as if it were made 
 of the most precious stuff on earth. She felt 
 sure now that it must be a magic thread, 
 and that it somehow would help her to cure 
 her blind sister. So she hastened on, glad 
 and happy. 
 
 Soon, however, she approached a dark, 
 dense forest. No ray of sunlight seemed ever 
 to have fallen on the trunks of its trees. In the 
 distance she thought she could hear the growl 
 of bears and the roar of lions. Her heart almost 
 stopped beating. " Oh, I can never go 
 through that gloomy forest," said she to her- 
 self, and her eyes filled with tears. She 
 turned to retrace her steps, when the soft 
 breeze which still accompanied her whispered, 
 " Look at the thread you have been carrying I 
 Look at the golden thread!'* She looked 
 back, and the bright, tiny line of light seemed 
 to be actually smiling at her, as it stretched 
 across the soft greensward, far into the dis- 
 
24 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 tance, and, strange to say, each tiny blade of 
 grass which it had touched, had blossomed 
 into a flower. So, as the little girl looked 
 back, she saw a flowery path with a glittering 
 line of golden light running through it. " How 
 beautiful ! " she exclaimed, " I did not notice 
 the flowers as I came along, but the enchanted 
 thread will make the next traveler see them." 
 This thought filled her with such joy that 
 she pushed forward into the dark woods. 
 Sometimes she knocked her head against a 
 tree which stood in her way; sometimes she 
 almost feared she was lost, but every now and 
 then she would look back and the sight of the 
 tiny thread of golden light always renewed her 
 courage. Once in a while she felt quite sure 
 that she could see the nose of some wild beast 
 poking out in front of her, but when she came 
 nearer it proved to be the joint in a tree trunk, 
 or some strange fungus which had grown on a 
 low branch. Then she would laugh at her 
 own fear and go on. One of the wonderful 
 things about the mysterious little thread which 
 she carried in her hand was, that it seemed to 
 open a puth behind it, so that one could easily 
 follow in her foot-steps without stumbling 
 over fallen trees, or bumping against living 
 ones. Every now and then a gray squirrel 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. 25 
 
 would frisk by her in a friendly fashion, as if 
 to assure her that she was not alone, even in 
 the twilight of the dark woods. By and by 
 she came to the part of the forest where the 
 trees were less dense, and soon she was out in 
 the glad sunshine again. 
 
 But now a new difficulty faced her. As far 
 as she could see stretched a low, swampy marsh 
 of wet land. The mud and slime did not look 
 very inviting, but the thought of her little 
 blind sister came to her again, and she bravely 
 plunged into the mire. The dirty, dripping 
 mud clung to her dress and made her feet so 
 heavy that she grew weary lifting them out of 
 it. Sometimes she seemed to be stuck fast, 
 and it was only with a great effort that she 
 could pull out, first one foot, and then the 
 other. A lively green frog hopped along 
 beside her, and seemed to say, in his funny, 
 croaking voice, "Never mind the mud, you'll 
 soon be through it.'* When she had at last 
 reached the end of the slippery, sticky marsh, 
 and stood once more on firm ground, she 
 looked back at the tiny thread of golden light 
 which trailed along after her. What do you 
 think had happened ? Wherever the mysteri- 
 ous and beautiful thread had touched the mud, 
 the water had dried up, and the earth had 
 
26 IN STOBY-LAND. 
 
 become firm and hard , so that any other per- 
 son who might wish to cross the swampy place 
 could walk on firm ground. This made the 
 child Avilla so happy, that she began to sing 
 softly to herself. 
 
 Soon, however, her singing ceased, As the 
 day advanced, the air grew hotter and hotter. 
 The trees had long ago disappeared, and now the 
 grass became parched and dry, until at last she 
 found herself in the midst of a dreary desert. 
 For miles and miles the scorching sand 
 stretched on every side. She could not even 
 find a friendly rock in whose shadow she 
 might rest for a time. The blazing sun hurt 
 her eyes and made her head ache, and the hot 
 sand burned her feet. Still she toiled on, 
 cheered by a swarm of yellow butterflies that 
 fluttered just ahead of her. At last the end 
 of the desert was reached, just as the suu dis- 
 appeared behind a crimson cloud. Dusty and 
 weary, the child Avilla was about to throw 
 herself down on the ground to rest. As she 
 did so, her eyes turned to look once more at 
 the golden thread which had trailed behind 
 her all day on the hot sand. Lo, and behold ! 
 What did she see? Tall shade trees had 
 sprung up along the path she had traveled, 
 and each tiny grain of sand that the wonder- 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. 27 
 
 f ul thread had touched, was now changed into 
 a diamond, or ruby, or emerald, or some other 
 precious stone. On one side the pathway 
 across the desert shone and glittered, while on 
 the other the graceful trees cast a cool and 
 refreshing shade. 
 
 Little Avilla stood amazed as she looked at 
 the beautiful trees and the sparkling gems. 
 All feeling of weariness was gone. The air 
 now seemed mild and refreshing, and she 
 thought that she could hear in the distance 
 some birds singing their evening songs. One 
 by one the bright stars came out in the quiet 
 sky above her head, as if to keep guard while 
 she slept through the night. 
 
 The next morning she started forward on 
 her long journey round the world. She trav- 
 eled quite pleasantly for a while, thinking of 
 how cool and shady the desert path would now 
 be for any one who might have to travel it, 
 and of the precious jewels she had left for 
 some one else to gather up. She could not 
 stop for them herself, she was too anxious to 
 press forward and finish her task, in order 
 that her little blind sister might the sooner 
 see. 
 
 After a time she came to some rough rocks 
 tumbled about in great confusion, as if angry 
 
28 . IN STOBY-LAND. 
 
 giants had hurled them at each other. Soon 
 the path grew steeper and steeper, and the 
 rocks sharper and sharper, until they cut her 
 feet. Before her she could see nothing but 
 more rocks until they piled themselves into a 
 great mountain, which frowned down upon 
 her, as much as to say, " How dare you 
 attempt to climb to my summit? " The brave 
 child hesitated. Just then two strong eagles 
 with outspread wings rose from their nest of 
 sticks on the side of a steep cliff near by, and 
 soared majestically and slowly aloft. As they 
 passed far above her head they uttered a loud 
 cry which seemed to say, " Be brave and 
 strong and you shall meet us at the moun- 
 tain-top." 
 
 Sometimes the ragged edges of the rocks 
 tore her dress, and sometimes they caught the 
 tiny golden thread, and tangled it so that she 
 had to turn back and loosen it from their hold. 
 The road was very steep and she was com- 
 pelled to sit down every few minutes and get 
 her breath. Still she climbed on, keeping the 
 soaring eagles always in sight. As she neared 
 the top, she turned and looked back at the 
 enchanted thread of golden light which she 
 had carried through all the long, strange 
 journey. Another marvelous thing had hap- 
 
THE LINE OF GOLDEN LIGHT. 
 
 29 
 
 pened! The rugged path of sharp, broken 
 rocks, had changed into broad and beautiful 
 white marble steps, over which trailed the 
 shining thread of light. She knew that she 
 had made a pathway up this difficult mountain 
 and her heart rejoiced. 
 
 She turned again to proceed on her journey, 
 when, only a short distance in front of her, 
 she saw the dark cave in which lived the 
 strange old woman who had bidden her carry 
 the line of light around the world. She 
 hastened forward, and on entering the cave, 
 she saw the old creature, almost bent double, 
 still spinning the mysterious thread. Avilla 
 ran forward and cried out, " I have done all 
 you told me to do, now give sight to my 
 sister? " The old woman sprang to her feet, 
 seized the thread of golden light and exclaimed, 
 " At last ! at last ! I am freed ! " 
 
 Then came so strange and wonderful a 
 change that Avilla could hardly believe her 
 own eyes. Instead of the ugly, cross-looking 
 old crone, there stood a beautiful princess, 
 with long golden hair, and tender blue eyes, 
 her face radiant with joy. Her story was soon 
 told. Hundreds of years ago she had been 
 changed into the bent old woman, and shut up 
 in the dark cave on the mountain-side, because 
 
30 IN STOBY-LAND. 
 
 she, a daughter of the King, had been selfish 
 and idle, thinking only of herself, and her 
 punishment had been that she must remain 
 thus disguised and separated from all com- 
 panions and friends until she could find some- 
 one who would be generous and brave enough 
 to take the long, dangerous journey around 
 the world for the sake of others. Her mother 
 had been a fairy princess and had taught her 
 many things which we mortals have yet to 
 learn. She showed the child Avilla how, by 
 dipping the golden thread into a spring of 
 ordinary water, she could change the water 
 into golden water, which glittered and sparkled 
 like liquid sunshine. Filling a pitcher with 
 this they hastened together to where the little 
 blind sister sat in darkness waiting for some 
 one to come and lead her home. The beauti- 
 ful princess told Avilla to dip her hands into 
 the bowl of enchanted water, and then press 
 them upon the closed eyes of her sister. They 
 opened I And the little blind girl could see I 
 After that the fairy princess came and lived 
 with little Avilla and her sister, and taught 
 them how to do many wonderful things, of 
 which I have not time to tell you to-day. 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA AND THE 
 MAGIC PRISON. 
 
 Litttle Harweda was born a prince. His 
 father was King over all the land and his 
 mother was the most beautiful Queen the 
 world had ever seen and Prince Harweda was 
 their only child. From the day of his birth 
 everything that love or money could do for him 
 had been done. The very wind of heaven was 
 made to fan over an seolian harp that it might 
 enter his room, not as a strong fresh breeze, 
 but as a breath of music. Eeflectors were so 
 arranged in the windows that twice as much 
 moonlight fell on his crib as on that of any 
 ordinary child. The pillow on which his head 
 rested was made out of the down from hum- 
 ming birds breasts and the water in which his 
 face and hands were washed was always steeped 
 in rose leaves before being brought to the 
 nursery. Everything that could be done was 
 done, and nothing which could add to his ease 
 or comfort was left undone. 
 
 But his parents, although they were King 
 and Queen, were not very wise, for they never 
 
 (31) 
 
32 Iff STOKY-LAND. 
 
 thought of making the young prince think of 
 anybody but himself and he had never in all 
 his life given up any one of his comforts that 
 somebody else might have a pleasure. So, of 
 course, he grew to be selfish and peevish, and 
 by the time he was five years old he was so 
 disagreeable that nobody loved him. " Dear, 
 dear I what shall we do ? " said the poor Queen 
 mother and the King only sighed and answered 
 " Ah, what indeed ! " They were both very 
 much grieved at heart for they well knew that 
 little Harweda, although he was a prince, 
 would never grow up to be a really great King 
 unless he could make his people love him. 
 
 At last they decided to send for his fairy 
 god-mother and see if she could suggest any- 
 thing which would cure Prince Harweda of 
 always thinking about himself. " Well, well, 
 well!" exclaimed the god-mother when they 
 had laid the case before her " This is a 
 pretty state of affairs ! and I his god- mother 
 too ! Why wasn't I called in sooner? " She 
 then told them that she would have to think a 
 day and a night and a day again before she 
 could offer them any assistance. " But," 
 added she, " if I take the child in charge you 
 must promise not to interfere for a whole 
 year." The King and Queen gladly promised 
 
PRINCE H Alt WE DA. 83 
 
 that they would not speak to or even see their 
 son for the required time if the fairy god- 
 mother would only cure him of his selfish- 
 ness. " We'll see about that," said the 
 god-mother, " Humph, expecting to be a King 
 some day and not caring for anybody but 
 Aimself a fine King he'll make!" With 
 that off she flew and the King and Queen saw 
 nothing more of her for a day and a night and 
 another day. Then back she came in a great 
 hurry. " Give me the Prince," said she; " I 
 have his house all ready for him. One month 
 from to-day I'll bring him back to you. Per- 
 haps he'll be cured and perhaps he won't. If 
 he is not cured then we shall try two months 
 next time. We'll see, we'll see." Without 
 any more ado she picked up the astonished 
 young prince and flew away with him as 
 lightly as if he were nothing but a feather or 
 a straw. In vain the poor queen wept and 
 begged for a last kiss. Before she had wiped 
 her eyes, the fairy god- mother and Prince 
 Harweda were out of sight. 
 
 They flew a long distance until they reached 
 a great forest. When they had come to the 
 middle of it, down flew the fairy, and in a 
 minute more the young prince was standing 
 on the green grass beside a beautiful pink 
 
84 72V 8TOHY-LAN2}. 
 
 marble palace that looked something like a good 
 sized summer house. 
 
 " This is your home/' said the god-mother, 
 " in it you will find everything you need and 
 you can do just as you choose with your time." 
 Little Harweda was delighted at this for there 
 was nothing in the world he liked better than 
 to do as he pleased, so he tossed his cap up 
 into the air and ran into the lovely little house 
 without so much as saying " Thank you " to 
 his god-mother. *' Humph," said she as he 
 disappeared, " you'll have enough of it before 
 you are through with it, my fine prince." 
 With that off she flew. 
 
 Prince Harweda had no sooner set his foot 
 inside the small rose-colored palace than the 
 iron door shut with a bang and locked itself. 
 For you must know by this time that it was an 
 enchanted house, as of course, all houses are 
 that are built by fairies. 
 
 Prince Harweda did not mind being locked 
 in, as he cared very little for the great beauti- 
 ful outside world, and the new home which was 
 to be all his own was very fine, and he was eager 
 and impatient to examine it. Then too he 
 thought that when he was tired of it, all he 
 would have to do would be to kick on the door 
 and a servant from somewhere would come 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA. 35 
 
 and open it, he had always had a servant 
 ready to obey his slightest command. 
 
 His fairy god-mother had told him that it 
 was his house, therefore he was interested in 
 looking at everything in it. 
 
 The floor was made of a beautiful red copper 
 that shone in the sunlight like burnished gold 
 and seemed almost a dark red in the shadow. 
 He had never seen anything half so fine before. 
 The ceiling was of mother-of-pearl and showed 
 a constant changing of tints of red and blue 
 and yellow and green, all blending into the 
 gleaming white, as only mother-of-pearl can. 
 From the middle of this handsome ceiling 
 hung a large gilded bird cage containing a 
 beautiful bird, which just at this moment was 
 singing a glad song of welcome to the Prince. 
 Harweda, however, cared very little about 
 birds, so he took no notice of the songster. 
 
 Around on every side were costly divans 
 with richly embroidered coverings and on 
 which were many sizes of soft down pillows. 
 "Ah," thought the Prince, "here I can 
 lounge at my ease with no one to call me to 
 stupid lessons!" Wonderfully carved jars 
 and vases of wrought gold and silver stood 
 about on the floor and each was filled with a 
 different kind of perfume. " This ia deli- 
 
36 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 clous," said Prince Harweda. "Now I can 
 have all the sweet odors I want without the 
 trouble of going out into the garden for roses 
 or lilies." 
 
 In the center of the room was a fountain 
 of sparkling water which leaped up and fell 
 back into its marble basin with a kind of 
 rythmical sound that made a faint, dreamy 
 music very pleasant to listen to. 
 
 On a table near at hand were various 
 baskets of the most tempting pears and 
 grapes and peaches, and near them were dishes 
 of all kinds of sweetmeats. " Good," said 
 the greedy young prince, " that is what I like 
 best of all," and therewith he fell to eating 
 the fruit and sweetmeats as fast as he could 
 cram them into his mouth. He ate so much 
 he had a pain in his stomach, but strange to 
 say, the table was just as full as when he 
 began, for no sooner did he reach his hand 
 out and take a soft mellow pear or a rich, 
 juicy peach than another pear or peach took 
 its place in the basket. The same thing 
 occurred when he helped himself to chocolate 
 drops or marsh-mallows or any of the other con- 
 fectionery upon the table. For, of course, if 
 the little palace was enchanted, everything in 
 it was enchanted, also. 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA. 37 
 
 When Prince Harweda had eaten until he 
 could eat no more he threw himself down upon 
 one of the couches and an invisible hand 
 gently stroked his hair until he fell asleep. 
 When he awoke he noticed for the first time 
 the walls which, by the way, were really the 
 strangest part of his new home. They had 
 in them twelve long, checkered windows which 
 reached from the ceiling to the floor. The 
 spaces between the windows were filled in with 
 mirrors exactly the same size as the windows, 
 so that the whole room was walled in with 
 windows and looking glasses. Through the 
 three windows that looked to the north could 
 be seen the far distant mountains Beautiful, 
 as they were called, towering high above the 
 surrounding country ; sometimes their snow- 
 covered tops were pink or creamy yellow as 
 they caught the rays of the sunrise; some- 
 times they were dark purple or blue as 
 they reflected the storm cloud. From 
 the three windows that faced the south 
 could be seen the great ocean, tossing and 
 moving, constantly catching a thousand gleams 
 of silver from the moonlight. Again and 
 again, each little wave would be capped with 
 white from its romp with the wind. Yet, as 
 the huge mountains seemed to reach higher 
 
38 IN STOKY-LAND. 
 
 than man could climb, so the vast ocean seemed 
 to stretch out farther than any ship could 
 possibly carry him. The eastern windows 
 gave each morning a glorious vision of sky as 
 the darkness of the night slowly melted into 
 the still gray dawn, and that changed into a 
 golden glow and that in turn became a tender 
 pink. It was really the most beautiful as well 
 as the most mysterious sight on earth if one 
 watched it closely. The windows on the west 
 looked out upon a great forest of tall fir trees 
 and at the time of sunset the glorious colors 
 of the sunset sky could be seen between the 
 dark green branches. 
 
 But little Prince Harweda cared for none 
 of these beautiful views. In fact, he scarcely 
 glanced out of the windows at all, he was so 
 taken up with the broad handsome mirrors, 
 for in each of them he could see himself 
 reflected and he was very fond of looking at 
 himself in a looking glass. He was much 
 pleased when he noticed that the mirrors were 
 so arranged that each one not only reflected 
 his whole body, head, arms, feet and all, but 
 that it also reflected his image as seen in 
 several of the other mirrors. He could thus 
 see his front and back and each side, all at the 
 same time. As he was a handsome boy he 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA. 39 
 
 enjoyed these many views of himself im- 
 mensely, and would stand and sit and lie down 
 just for the fun of seeing the many images of 
 himself do the same thing. 
 
 He spent so much time looking at and 
 admiring himself in the wonderful looking- 
 glasses that he had very little time for the 
 books and games which had been provided for 
 his amusement. Hours were spent each day 
 first before one mirror and then another, and 
 he did not notice that the windows were grow- 
 ing narrower and the mirrors wider until the 
 former had become so small that they hardly 
 admitted light enough for him to see himself 
 in the looking-glass. Still, this did not alarm 
 him very much as he cared nothing whatever 
 for the outside world. It only made him 
 spend more time before the mirror, as it was 
 now getting quite difficult for him to see him- 
 self at all. The windows at last became mere 
 slits in the wall and the mirrors grew so large 
 that they not only reflected little Harweda 
 but all of the room besides in a dim, indistinct 
 kind of a way. 
 
 Finally, however, Prince Harweda awoke 
 one morning and found himself in total dark- 
 ness. Not a ray of light came from the out- 
 side and of course, not an object in the room 
 
40 ztf STORY-LAND. 
 
 could be seen. He rubbed his eyes and sat 
 up to make sure that he was not dreaming. 
 Then he called loudly for some one to come 
 and open a window for him, but no one came. 
 He got up and groped his way to the iron 
 door and tried to open it, but it was, as you 
 know, locked. He kicked it and beat upon it, 
 but he only bruised his fists and hurt his toes. 
 He grew quite angry now. How dare any one 
 shut him, a prince, up in a dark prison like 
 this! He abused his fairy god-mother, 
 calling her all sorts of horrid names. Then 
 he upbraided his father and mother, the King 
 and Queen, for letting him go away with such 
 a god-mother. In fact, he blamed everybody 
 and everything but himself for his present 
 condition, but it was of no use. The sound 
 of his own voice was his only answer. The 
 whole of the outside world seemed to have 
 forgotten him. 
 
 As he felt his way back to his couch he 
 knocked over one of the golden jars which had 
 held the liquid perfume, but the perfume was 
 all gone now and only an empty jar rolled over 
 the floor. He laid himself down on the divan 
 but its soft pillows had been removed and a 
 hard iron frame-work received him. He was 
 dismayed and lay for a long time thinking of 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA. 41 
 
 what he had best do with himself. All before 
 him was blank darkness, as black as the darkest 
 night you ever saw. He reached out his hand 
 to get some fruit to eat, but only one or two 
 withered apples remained on the table was 
 he to starve to death? Suddenly he noticed 
 that the tinkling music of the fountain had 
 ceased. He hastily groped his way over to it 
 and he found in place of the dancing, running 
 stream stood a silent pool of water. A hush 
 had fallen upon everything about him, a dead 
 silence was in the room. He threw himself 
 down upon the floor and wished that he were 
 dead also. He lay there for a long, long 
 time. 
 
 At last he heard, or thought he heard, a 
 faint sound. He listened eagerly. It seemed 
 to be some tiny creature not far from him, 
 trying to move about. For the first time for 
 nearly a month he remembered the bird in its 
 gilded cage. " Poor little thing," he cried 
 as he sprang up, " You too are shut within this 
 terrible prison. This thick darkness must be 
 as hard for you to bear as it is for me." He 
 went towards the cage and as he approached 
 it the bird gave a sad little chirp. 
 
 " That's better than nothing," said the boy, 
 "you must need some water to drink, poor 
 
42 ZV STORY-LAND. 
 
 thing," continued he as he filled its drinking 
 cup. " This is all I have to give you." 
 
 Just then he heard a harsh, grating sound, 
 as of rusty bolts sliding with difficulty out of 
 their sockets, and then faint rays of light not 
 wider than a hair began to shine between the 
 heavy plate mirrors. Prince Harweda was 
 filled with joy. "Perhaps, perhaps," said he 
 softly, " I may yet see the light again. Ah, 
 how beautiful the outside world would look to 
 me now ! " 
 
 The next day he was so hungry that he 
 began to eat one of the old withered apples, 
 and as he bit it he thought of the bird, his 
 fellow-prisoner. " You must be hungry, too, 
 poor little thing," said he as he divided his 
 miserable food and put part of it into the 
 bird's cage. Again came the harsh, grating 
 sound , and the boy noticed that the cracks of 
 light were growing larger. Still they were 
 only cracks, nothing of the outside world 
 could be seen. Still it was a comfort not to 
 have to grope about in total darkness. Prince 
 Harweda felt quite sure that the cracks of 
 light were a little wider, and on going up to 
 one and putting his eye close to it as he 
 would to a pinhole in a paper, he was re- 
 joiced to find that he could tell the greenness 
 
PRINCE HARWEDA. 43 
 
 of the grass from the blue of the sky. " Ah, 
 my pretty bird, my pretty bird!" he cried 
 joyfully, " I have had a glimpse of the great 
 beautiful outside world and you shall have it 
 too." 
 
 With these words he climbed up into a 
 chair and loosening the cage from the golden 
 chain by which it hung, he carried it care- 
 fully to the nearest crack of light and placed 
 it close to the narrow opening. Again was 
 heard the harsh, grating sound and the walls 
 moved a bit and the windows were now at 
 least an inch wide. At this the poor Prince 
 clasped his hands with delight. He sat him- 
 self down near the bird cage and gazed out of 
 the narrow opening. Never before had the 
 trees looked so tall and stately, or the white 
 clouds floating through the sky so lovely. The 
 next day as he was carefully cleaning the 
 bird's cage so that the little creature might be 
 somewhat more comfortable, the walls again 
 creaked and groaned and the mirrors grew 
 narrower by just so many inches as the win- 
 dows widened. But Prince Harwedasaw only 
 the flood of sunshine that poured in, and the 
 added beauty of the larger landscape. He 
 cared nothing whatever now for the stupid 
 mirrors which could only reflect what was 
 
44 IN STOR7-LAND. 
 
 placed before them. Each day he found 
 something new and beautiful in the view from 
 the narrow windows. Now it was a squirrel 
 frisking about and running up some tall tree 
 trunk so rapidly that Prince Harweda could 
 not follow it with his eyes; again it was a 
 mother bird feeding her young. By this time 
 the windows were a foot wide or more. One 
 day as two white doves suddenly soared aloft 
 in the blue sky the poor little canary who had 
 now become the tenderly cared for comrade of 
 the young Prince, gave a pitiful little trill. 
 " Dear little fellow," cried Prince Harweda, 
 " do you also long for your freedom? You 
 shall at least be as free as I am." So saying, 
 he opened the cage door and the bird flew out. 
 The Prince laughed as he watched it flutter 
 about from chair to table and back to chair 
 again. He was so much occupied with the 
 bird that he did not notice that the walls 
 had again shaken and the windows were now 
 their full size, until the added light caused 
 him to look around. He turned and saw 
 the room looking almost exactly as it 
 did the day he entered it with so much 
 pride because it was all his own. Now it 
 seemed close and stuffy and he would gladly 
 have exchanged it for the humblest home in 
 
PRINCE EAR WED A. 46 
 
 his father's kingdom where he could meet 
 people and hear them talk and see them smile 
 at each other, even if they should take no 
 notice of him. One day soon after this the 
 little bird fluttered up against the window pane 
 and beat his wings against it in a vain effort 
 to get out. A new idea seized the young 
 Prince, and tak ing up one of the golden jars he 
 went to the window and struck on one of its 
 checkered panes of glass with all his force. 
 " You shall be free, even if I can not," said 
 he to the bird. Two or three strong blows 
 shivered the small pane and the bird swept out 
 into the free open air beyond. " Ah, my 
 pretty one, how glad I am that you are free at 
 last," exclaimed the prince as he stood watch- 
 ing the flight of his fellow-prisoner. His face 
 was bright with the glad, unselfish joy over the 
 bird's liberty. The small, pink marble palace 
 shook from top to bottom, the iron door flew 
 open and the fresh wind from the sea rushed 
 in and seemed to catch the boy in its invisible 
 arms. Prince Harweda could hardly believe 
 his eyes as he sprang to the door. There 
 stood his fairy god-mother, smiling and with 
 her hand reached out toward him. ' Come, 
 my god-child," said she gently, " we shall now 
 go back to your father and mother, the King 
 
46 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 and Queen, and they will rejoice with us that 
 you have been cured of your terrible disease 
 of selfishness." 
 
 Great indeed was the rejoicing in the palace 
 when Prince Harweda was returned to them a 
 sweet, loving boy, kind and thoughtful to all 
 about him. Many a struggle he had with him- 
 self and many a conquest over the old habit of 
 selfishness, but as time passed by he grew to 
 be a great and wise king, loving and tenderly 
 caring for all his people and loved by them in 
 return. 
 
THE LITTLE GRAY GRANDMOTHER; 
 
 OK, 
 THE ENCHANTED MIRROR. 
 
 Nobody knew whence she came or whither 
 she went. All that any one of the children 
 could have told you about her, was that often- 
 times they looked up from their play and there 
 she stood, in her soft misty gray gown, and 
 still softer, long, gray cloak and shadowy gray 
 veil which always reminded them of thin smoke. 
 Sometimes her face could scarcely be seen 
 behind this mysterious veil, and sometimes it 
 shone quite clear and distinct. This was 
 always the case when any one of them had 
 done some unselfish or brave act and thought 
 no one knew it. And yet, if happy with the 
 thought, he or she chanced to look up, there 
 would be the Little Gray Grandmother, her 
 face fairly shining with the glad smile of 
 approval. Then suddenly she would disap- 
 pear and they would not hear of her for days 
 and days. 
 
 There was a large family of them, and they 
 
 (47) 
 
had sharp eyes too, but none of them ever saw 
 her coming until, as I said before, there she 
 stood in the midst of them. They lived near 
 the great sea, and its mist often covered the 
 coast for miles and miles so that nothing but 
 the dim outline of objects could be seen. 
 Therefore, their city cousins had fallen into 
 the way of laughing at them and saying the 
 Little Gray Grandmother was only a bit of the 
 sea fog left behind after a damp day, but they 
 knew better. 
 
 Although she had never spoken to them, 
 had she not smiled at them, and sometimes 
 looked sad when she came upon them suddenly 
 and found any one of them doing a mean or 
 greedy deed, and ah, how stern her eyes were 
 the day she found Wilhelm telling a lie ! 
 Nobody could make them believe that she 
 was only a dream which came from a bit of 
 sea fog! Then, too, had she not left that 
 thimble for Mai which was no sooner placed 
 on her thimble-finger than it began to push 
 the needle so fast that a seam a yard long 
 would be finished before you could say, " Jack 
 Robinson," unless you had practiced saying it 
 very often. 
 
 Who else was it that brought those tall 
 leather boots for Gregory which helped him 
 
THE LITTLE GRAY GRANDMOTHER. 49 
 
 to run so fast when sent on an errand that 
 even his dog, Oyster, could not keep up with 
 him? And as for Lelia, everybody knew that 
 it was just after the Little Gray Grandmother 
 had paid them a visit Lelia had found herself 
 holding that bottle of Attic salt from far-away 
 Greece, two grains of which placed on the end 
 of her tongue, caused good humor and wit to 
 flow with every word she said until she was 
 equal to a bit of sunshine on a dark day. 
 
 All of them were as certain as certain could 
 be that she had presented Doodle when he was 
 avery little child with those soft, warm mit- 
 tens which somehow grew as he grew and so 
 always just fitted his hands. What wonder- 
 ful mittens they were, too ! All Doodle had 
 to do on the coldest day was to reach out his 
 hand in his hearty, cheery way, to any one, and 
 no matter how cold that person might be, even 
 if his teeth were chattering with the cold, he 
 was sure to feel a warm glow all over his 
 body. This was how Doodle got into the way 
 of taking care of all the lame dogs and sick 
 cats that came along; and why all the old peo- 
 ple liked him. They said he made them feel 
 young again. And Tom and Wilhelm and the 
 rest of them, had not the Little Gray Grand- 
 mother left a gift for each of them ? 
 4 
 
50 jy STORY-LAND. 
 
 Ah, but they were a happy family! What 
 if they did have to eat herring and dry bread 
 all the year round, with potatoes now and then 
 thrown in, and had to live in a hut, didn't 
 they have a Little Gray Grandmother, when 
 so many city children, who thought themselves 
 fine because they lived in big houses, had 
 never even heard of her ! 
 
 Now, you can understand why all the chil- 
 dren were gathered together eagerly looking 
 at something which lay on the sand before 
 them. The Little Gray Grandmother had 
 been there and had left something. What was 
 it? They could not tell. It glittered like the 
 surface of a pool of water when it is quite 
 still and the sun shines down upon it, and they 
 could see their faces reflected on it just as they 
 had often seen them in the well back of the 
 house, only this mirrored their faces much 
 more clearly than the well did. What was it? 
 For whom had the Little Gray Grandmother 
 intended it? These were the questions they 
 could not answer. So they decided to take it 
 in to the dear-mother and have her explain it 
 to them. 
 
 Ah, the dear-mother, she must know, she 
 knew almost everything and what she didn't 
 know she always tried to find out for them. 
 
THE LITTLE GBAY GRANDMOTHER. 51 
 
 That was the finest thing about the dear- 
 mother. Of course she cooked their food for 
 them, and made their clothes, and nursed any 
 of them when they were ill, and all such things, 
 but the great thing about her was that she 
 never seemed too busy to look at what they 
 brought her and was always ready to answer 
 their questions. Therefore they with one 
 accord decided to take this new gift into the 
 house and ask the dear-mother about it. 
 
 Of course she admired it ; she always ad- 
 mired everything they brought her, if it was 
 only a star-fish or a new kind of sea-weed. 
 She said it was made of some sort of precious 
 metal, and that it seemed to be a mirror such 
 ks they used in olden times before looking- 
 glasses had been invented. "Perhaps," she 
 added, " it has been washed up from the sea." 
 But the children cried, " Oh, no, the Little 
 Gray Grandmother left it." They were very, 
 very sure of that. But for whom had it been 
 left? Even the dear-mother could not settle 
 this question. 
 
 At last it was decided that it should be hung 
 on the cottage wall that all might use it; so 
 there it hung for many a year, and ah, such 
 strange things as the children saw reflected in 
 it! It was not at all like an ordinary mirror, 
 
52 J2V STORY-LAND. 
 
 not in the least like anything you ever saw, 
 and yet, perchance you may have seen some- 
 thing like it. How do I know? 
 
 Well, at any rate the children had never 
 heard of such a wonderful mirror before. It 
 had a queer way of swinging itself on its 
 hinge I forgot to tell you that it had been 
 fastened to the wall by a hinge so that its face 
 could be turned toward the east or the west 
 window, and thus let the children see them- 
 selves in the morning as well as the evening 
 light. At first they thought this was a fine 
 idea, but sometimes it was not exactly com- 
 fortable to have the small mirror suddenly 
 swing round and face them when they didn't 
 care to be faced. 
 
 For instance, when Mai had been working 
 hard all day and because she felt tired, spoke 
 crossly to the little brothers, it was not at all 
 agreeable to look up and see the face of a 
 bear reflected in the silver mirror, or when 
 Gregory had been boasting of something fine 
 he was going to accomplish, to catch a glimpse 
 of a barnyard rooster strutting about as if he 
 were indeed the master of the farm. Some- 
 how it made Gregory feel foolish even if the 
 rest of the children did not see the image in the 
 mirror. Once little Beta came in ahead of the 
 
THE LITTLE GRAY GRANDMOTHER. 53 
 
 others, and, finding some apples that the father 
 had brought home, seized the largest one 
 and began to devour it. A swing of the sil- 
 ver mirror brought its polished surface before 
 her eves, and instead of a reflection of her own 
 chubby face, she saw a pig greedily devouring 
 a pile of apples. She couldn't understand it, 
 and yet it made her feel ashamed and she 
 quietly laid the apple back on the table. 
 
 But the pictures were not all disagreeable 
 /mes. Sometimes the small silver mirror re- 
 flected beautiful pictures. One bright summer 
 day when Mai had stayed indoors all the morn- 
 ing to help the dear-mother finish a jacket for 
 Beta, when she was longing with all her heart 
 to be out in the sunshine, she chanced to 
 glance up at the small mirror, and there was 
 the vision of a beautiful Saint, with a golden 
 light around her head such as Mai had seen in 
 a church window once when she was in the 
 city. The smile on the face was radiant. In 
 a moment the vision had disappeared and only 
 the shining surface of silver remained. 
 
 One day Gregory rowed little Beta across 
 the bay to the large town on the other side, 
 and did without his dinner that with his little 
 /arthing he might pay for the privilege of let- 
 ting her climb the light-house stairs and see 
 
54 IN STOfiY-LAND. 
 
 how big the world was. That night when they 
 reached home, tired and happy, Beta looked 
 into the mirror and there she saw the good St. 
 Christopher wading through a dark stream of 
 water with the little Christ-child on his 
 shoulder, and somehow the face of St. Chris- 
 topher was Gregory's face. As she cried, 
 "Look!" she pointed to the mirror, but 
 Gregory could see nothing but its shining sur- 
 face. Still, Beta ever afterwards called him 
 " St. Christopher," little dreaming that in 
 years to come he would truly be the means by 
 which many little children were carried safely 
 across the dark streams. 
 
 At another time Doodle had rescued a poor 
 frightened cat from some boys on the beach 
 who were tormenting her, and even though 
 they jeered at him and called him "chicken- 
 hearted" he had taken the little creature up 
 in his arms and brought her in to the dear 
 mother. As he passed the small silver mirror, 
 a picture of a young knight shone in the 
 depths of its surface, with a face so strong 
 and pure and brave that Doodle stopped to 
 admire it and wonder how it came there. 
 Again and again when the children 
 did a kind, or a truthful, or loving thing, the 
 mirror reflected for a moment some beautiful 
 
THE LITTLE GRAY GRANDMOTHER. 55 
 
 image which instantly disappeared if it were 
 spoken of. Somehow it constantly reminded 
 them of the glad look in the eyes of the Little 
 Gray Grandmother when she found them play- 
 ing peacefully and happily together. And 
 strange to say, the Little Gray Grandmother 
 never came again after the small silver mirror 
 had been hung on the wall. Probably she 
 thought they did not need her any longer. 
 
 Many years passed by and the children were 
 all grown, when the dear-mother was called to 
 pass on to her heavenly home. As they 
 gathered around her death bed she asked them 
 to hand her the small silver mirror which still 
 hung on the home wall. She took it and 
 broke it into pieces, giving a piece to each of 
 of the eight children, and each piece immedi- 
 ately became a full-sized mirror as large as 
 the first one had been. These she told them 
 to keep always with them, and then with a 
 gentle smile she passed away. As they sepa- 
 rated to go out into the world, each one took 
 his or her small silver mirror and hung it in his 
 or her private bed room, that each might look 
 into it and know, for certain, whether that day 
 had been spent for the cause of the right or 
 the wrong. 
 
LITTLE BLESSED-EYES; 
 
 OB, 
 
 THE FAIRY'S BIRTHDAY GIFT. 
 
 In the olden times when fairies could be seen 
 by mortals, they often took upon themselves 
 the office of sponsors, god-fathers and god- 
 mothers, to new-born children. In such cases, 
 the child adopted was sure, sooner or later, 
 to receive some wonderful gift from his fairy 
 god-mother. 
 
 One bright, Spring morning, a sweet boy 
 baby came into a humble home, made ready 
 for him by love. As his mother looked fondly 
 upon the wee form at her side she thought, 
 naturally enough, of his future, and wondered 
 what kind of a man he would become. " How 
 I wish," said she softly, " that I could give to 
 you, my darling child, the richest gift on 
 earth, so that Kings and Emperors might be 
 proud to call you their companion." " So 
 you can, " said a gentle voice beside her. The 
 mother was startled by the words, for she 
 thought herself alone when she uttered the 
 (56) 
 
LITTLE BLESSED-EYES. 57 
 
 wish. She looked to the right, then to the 
 left, nobody had entered the room. " Ah, 
 silly woman that I am," sighed she. "I 
 have let my own thoughts answer me." Again 
 she looked down at her babe. 
 
 " I can give him the greatest and most won- 
 derful gift on earth," said the same gentle 
 voice. This time the mother was quite sure 
 that some one had spoken, though the voice 
 was unlike any human voice she had ever 
 heard. It was so soft and musical that it 
 sounded like the tinkling of silver bells. The 
 poor woman was quite frightened and drew 
 her babe closer to her side as she peered into 
 the shadowy corners of the room. 
 
 " Ha, ha, ha ! " laughed the silvery voice, 
 " Are you afraid of me!" Following the 
 sound this time, the mother's eyes fell upon a 
 tiny creature no larger than your thumb who 
 sat perched upon a post of the bed. The body 
 of this strange, little being was as perfect as 
 that of any child. From its two shoulders 
 extended two wings as thin as gauze, but 
 gleaming with every tint of the rainbow. 
 Upon its head was a slender gold crown, and 
 its small face just at this moment was bright 
 with a merry smile. 
 
 The mother knew instantly that it was one of 
 
58 IN STOEY-LAND. 
 
 the good fairies who were reported to be pres- 
 ent at the birth of every babe, and who, if seen 
 and recognized, were sure to bring some good 
 fortune to the child, but if unnoticed, went 
 away sorrowing, because they were then 
 powerless to help the infant. 
 
 "What will you do for my child?" cried 
 the mother. " Will you give him comfort and 
 ease and fill his days with pleasure? " 
 
 66 Ah no," replied the fairy, " I will give 
 him something far better than pleasant food 
 and a soft bed and fine clothes! >! 
 
 " Will you make him great and powerful so 
 that men may bow down before him?" said 
 the mother eagerly. 
 
 ' No ! no ! " again replied the fairy shaking 
 her head. " I will give him something of far 
 more worth than fame and power ! " 
 
 " You will make him rich, so rich that he 
 will never have to work?" exclaimed the 
 mother. 
 
 "Nay, good woman," said the fairy seri- 
 ously . * ' These are but foolish things for which 
 you ask. My gift is greater than all of these 
 put together. Pleasure and influence and 
 wealth a man may earn for himself and he 
 may be very miserable after he gets them, 
 too," added she, with a shrug of the shoulders. 
 
LITTLE BLESSED-EYES. 59 
 
 " The gift that I would bestow upon your son 
 will make him the happiest of mortals and will 
 give him the power of making many, many 
 others happy !" 
 
 "Tell me," cried the mother, "how will 
 you make him so happy? No human being 
 is ever sure of happiness." 
 
 " Let me kiss him upon his two eyelids as 
 he lies there asleep," replied the fairy, "and 
 do you the same each returning birthday and 
 all will be well." 
 
 The mother hesitated ; a step was heard 
 approaching the door. 
 
 " Quick, quick ! " exclaimed the fairy. " I 
 must be off before that door opens, as it is 
 forbidden us ever to be seen by more than 
 one mortal at a time. Shall I give him the 
 magic kiss or not?" 
 
 " Yes ! " cried the excited mother, " I trust 
 you will do no harm to my precious child." 
 
 Instantly the fairy fluttered down from the 
 post of the bed, and impressing a kiss upon 
 each of the closed eyelids of the child, she 
 said, softly, " He shall be called Blessed- 
 Eyes.' " 
 
 The door of the room swung back upon its 
 hinges, the father of the child entered with a 
 cheery " Good morning" to wife and babe, 
 
60 IN" STOBY-LAND. 
 
 the fairy was gone. The mother silently 
 pondered over what had happened and when 
 the christening day came, she said his name 
 was to be " Blessed-Eyes." 
 
 Most of her friends and relatives thought 
 this was a very queer name indeed to give to a 
 child, and even went so far as to argue With 
 the father that the little one ought to be 
 named " John " or " James " after one or the 
 other of his two grandfathers. But as the 
 boy grew into a sweet, healthy childhood, 
 loving and kind to everyone, they were 
 gradually reconciled to the name, and little 
 Blessed-Eyes became a general favorite. He 
 was always sunshiny, always happy. His 
 mother never failed on each new birthday to 
 rise early, even before the day dawned, and 
 to go to his bedside, and, bending over him, 
 kiss his two eyelids as the fairly had bidden. 
 At such times she imagined that she heard a 
 faint sound as of a faraway chorus of strange, 
 silvery voices, singing: 
 
 " Love well, love well, love well, 
 That the heart within may swell, 
 Love well, love well, love well! " 
 
 Still, she was never quite sure but that it 
 was merely the first mellow tones of the 
 church bell in a distant village. 
 
LITTLE BLESSED-EYES. 61 
 
 Long before her child could talk the mother 
 noticed how closely he observed everything 
 about him, and how quickly he responded to 
 the faintest smile upon her face. As he grew 
 older it was a delight to take him out for a 
 walk. He was constantly discovering some 
 new beauty in the landscape. He saw the 
 first red glow of the evening sunset. His 
 eyes were the first to spy out the early spring 
 flower, even before the snow was off the 
 ground. In the late autumn when the wind 
 was sharp and cold and the woods were bare, 
 he was sure to bring home some red mount- 
 ain berries, or some withered leaf into a corner 
 of which a cunning little caterpillar had 
 wrapped himself, sewing it over and over as 
 one would sew a bag. Then he would tell 
 gleefully how the frost had touched the ponds 
 and changed them into smooth glass. Often 
 on a cold winter morning he would waken his 
 mother by clapping his hands with joy over 
 the frost-pictures on the window pane. Some- 
 times in the evening twilight he would ask his 
 mother if the stars were pinholes in the floor 
 of heaven through which the glory shone. 
 No stone nor cloud nor stream nor tree but 
 gave him pleasure. 
 
 "Ah," thought the mother, "this is the 
 
62 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 fairy's birthday gift. She has made his eyes 
 to see the beautiful everywhere." " More 
 than that, far more than that ! Kings and 
 princes shall yet call him great! " was whis- 
 pered gently in her ear. The mother was 
 amazed. Who could have heard her unut- 
 tered thoughts? She looked up, but she only 
 saw a robin hopping about in a branch of the 
 tree overhead. Still she seemed to hear again 
 the soft but distant singing of the words, 
 
 " Love well, love well, love well, 
 That the heart within may swell, 
 Love well, love well, love well.'* 
 
 " Surely," said she, half aloud, " who could 
 help loving the child. He has indeed, blessed 
 eyes." 
 
 As the boy grew older he seemed somehow 
 to know the people about him as nobody 
 else knew them. He was always finding out 
 the best that was in each of them. Somehow 
 he had a way of helping all the other lads out 
 of their difficulties. For instance, early one 
 morning when he chanced to be passing the 
 old basket maker's, he heard the shop boy 
 speaking in loud, angry tones to the baskets, 
 abusing them for being so contrary and ill- 
 shaped. Blessed-Eyes paused, and looking 
 
LITTLE BLESSED-EYES. 63 
 
 through the open door he saw the poor appren- 
 tice struggling to fit a round cover on to a 
 square basket and a square cover on to a round 
 basket. 
 
 "Let me help you," said Blessed-Eyes 
 cheerily, " I think you have made a mistake, 
 that's all. This cover was intended for that 
 basket, and that cover for this basket." With 
 these words he put the round cover on to the 
 round basket, and the square cover on to the 
 square basket, and each fitted snugly into its 
 place. 
 
 " How clever you are, Blessed-Eyes" said 
 the apprentice, " I have been working over 
 these baskets for the last half hour." With- 
 out more ado he put them upon his shoulder, 
 and started on his errand, which was to deliver 
 them to the gardener at the King's palace. 
 
 Years passed by, changing little Blessed- 
 Eyes into a tall young man, and each succeed- 
 ing year added to the wonderful power which 
 his eyes possessed, of seeing the best that was 
 in everything and everybody. He was the 
 friend of rich and poor. All sought his com- 
 panionship, for he was constantly pointing out 
 to them so many beautiful things in the world 
 about them which they would never have seen 
 but for him. All loved him dearly, for he 
 
64 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 was just as constantly finding the best that 
 their inner world contained, and encouraging 
 them to live according to their noblest ideals 
 of how true men and women should live. So, 
 you see, the fairy's Birthday Gift was indeed 
 a great, and wonderful Gift. 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY; 
 
 OR, 
 
 A STORY OF THE PAST, PRESENT 
 AND FUTURE. 
 
 Many of you will remember the story I told 
 you of Little Blessed-Eyes and the wonderful 
 power his fairy god-mother gave him of seeing 
 instantly the best that was in everybody. 
 To-day 1 want to tell you of some of the 
 remarkable things which happened after 
 Blessed-Eyes had become chief counsellor to 
 the King, for, of course, the King was glad to 
 keep near him a man with such power as that. 
 
 Long years have passed since our last story 
 and Blessed-Eyes had been the King's Chief 
 Counsellor for ten years, or more, and the 
 capital had become the most renowned city on 
 earth. One day Blessed-Eyes was walking 
 through its streets when he heard a deep sigh 
 as of some one in great trouble. He turned, 
 and looking around saw a poor laboring man 
 with his head bent forward upon his hands, as 
 he sat on the doorstep of a house near by. 
 6 (65) 
 
66 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 " What is the matter ?" said Blessed-Eyes 
 gently, stopping in front of the man. 
 
 " Ah," replied the poor man, "lean find 
 nothing to do in this great city. All the 
 places in the shops and stores are already 
 taken and my children are starving for want 
 of bread." 
 
 " What large, strong arms you have I " said 
 Blessed-Eyes. 
 
 " Yes," replied the man, " but of what use 
 are they to me. One can measure tape or 
 weigh sugar with much smaller arms than 
 mine." 
 
 "Why do you not seek the King?" con- 
 tinued Blessed-Eyes, "and offer to go to 
 yonder mountain range and quarry the beauti- 
 ful white marble which lies there. I have 
 heard that it is the most beautiful marble in 
 the whole world. Those great strong arms of 
 yours could do a grand work in the King's 
 quarry." 
 
 The man's face softened at once. " I will 
 go," he said. 
 
 The King gladly accepted the strong man's 
 offer and the next day started him out with 
 crow-bars and drills to the mountain district,, 
 and soon there came a wagon load of beautiful 
 white marble, and then another and then an- 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 67 
 
 other. The King was so pleased with the 
 marble that he sent ten men to help the strong 
 man in his work, and then twenty and then a 
 hundred, until the mountain tops rang with 
 the sturdy blows of the quarrymen. And soon 
 a vast pile of the glistening, white marble had 
 been collected in the King's stoneyard, and 
 the poor and discouraged man with the strong 
 arms had become the most famous stonemason 
 in the world. 
 
 Not long after this, Blessed-Eyes and the 
 King walked one fine evening to look at the 
 shining white marble and to plan how best it 
 could be used to make beautiful the city. As 
 they reached the tall white pile, they noticed a 
 man standing beside it, evidently measuring it 
 carefully with his eye. 
 
 " It is a fine sight/' said Blessed-Eyes, "is 
 it not?" 
 
 The man turned and looked sadly at him for 
 a moment, then taking a tablet from his pocket 
 he wrote on it: " I cannot hear a word that 
 you say; I am totally deaf, and therefore lam 
 the loneliest man in all the King's realm." 
 
 Blessed-Eyes' heart was stirred with pity for 
 the lonely man. He took the pencil and wrote 
 on the tablet: "You evidently have a very 
 correct eye for measurements." 
 
68 IN" STORY-LAND. 
 
 " Yes,'* replied the man, as soon as he had 
 read these words, " I can tell the difference of 
 a hair's breath in the height of any two lines, 
 and I think I could estimate the weight of any 
 one of these great stones within half an ounce." 
 
 At this Blessed-Eyes seized the tablet and 
 wrote rapidly on it these words: " You have 
 such good eyes for measurements and weights 
 you would surely be a good builder. This is 
 the King. Why do you not offer to make for 
 him some beautiful buildings out of this white 
 marble?" 
 
 The lonely man's face brightened; he turned 
 to the King. A short consultation showed the 
 King that he had found a treasure, and the 
 new architect was set to work at once draw- 
 ing plans for several buildings which were to 
 surround a charming lake that was in the 
 King's park. 
 
 In a few months the quiet park became the 
 scene of busy activity. Scores of men were 
 laying foundations ; others were hewing the 
 white marble into shapely blocks ; others were 
 polishing portions of it into tall and shining 
 white pillars, and others still, were carving 
 beautiful capitals for the same. All were 
 working under the direction of the new archi- 
 tect whose wonderful designs had so inspired 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 69 
 
 the King that he decided to build the grandest 
 and handsomest group of buildings which the 
 nations of the earth hud ever seen. When all 
 was done and the buildings stood in their full 
 majestic beauty with their long colonnades 
 shining in the sunlight and their graceful 
 towers rising airily in the upper air and their 
 beautiful gilded domes crowning all, the scene 
 resembled fairyland. The people could hardly 
 believe their eyes as they wandered through 
 the place. They came from the farthest ends 
 of the earth to enjoy its beauty, for the sad 
 and lonely deaf man had now become the most 
 famous architect in the whole world, and was 
 surrounded by friends and admirers, who 
 rejoiced in his power to create such bewilder- 
 ing scenes of beauty. His face lost its sad 
 expression and each time that he met Blessed- 
 Eyes there came a joyful smile upon it. 
 
 Handsome and attractive as were the out- 
 sides of these buildings, within they were 
 cold and bare, and Blessed-Eyes and the King 
 often consulted as to how the inner walls 
 might be made as beautiful as were the outer 
 ones. It chanced one day that as Blessed- 
 Eyes was walking alone through the " Court of 
 Honor," (this was the name now given to 
 that part of the lake which was surrounded by 
 
70 J2V STORY-LAND. 
 
 the white marble buildings), he observed a 
 group of boys and young men, evidently hav- 
 ing great sport with some object in their midst. 
 When he came near he saw it was an embar- 
 rassed and harassed looking stranger whom 
 they were tormenting. 
 
 With a feeling of indignation he pressed 
 forward into their midst. 
 
 "What is your difficulty, sir?" he said 
 quietly and respectfully. 
 
 The stranger blushed and faltered, then he 
 stammeringly said: 
 
 * I-I-I ca-ca-canno-no-not sp-speak your 
 language wi-wi-withou-ou-out st st-stammer- 
 ing." 
 
 At this the men roared with laughter. Again 
 Blessed-Eyes turned an angry look upon 
 them, and quietly slipping his arm through the 
 stranger's he said : " Will you walk with me? 
 I have something to say to you." And the 
 two walked off together, leaving the crowd 
 rather abashed and ashamed of its rudeness. 
 When they had gone some distance in silence, 
 Blessed-Eyes said: " As soon as I saw you I 
 noticed you had strong, shapely and artistic 
 hands. Surely you must be able to draw and 
 paint." The stranger's face lighted up with 
 a radiant smile. 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 71 
 
 " How very odd," he stammered, " th-th- 
 that you should see I was an artist, I had 
 hoped to get work here." 
 
 Blessed-Eyes took him at once to the King, 
 and soon the three were deep in plans for 
 decorating and making beautiful the inner 
 walls of the wonderful white buildings which 
 surrounded the " Court of Honor." It 
 was not long before the stammering stranger 
 had proved that he was not only an artist 
 but a master artist. Lesser artists and 
 new pupils flocked to him from all parts 
 of the land and soon the interior of the 
 handsome buildings presented scenes as busy 
 as the outside had before shown. In less than 
 a year the walls of all the buildings had been 
 decorated in soft, beautiful colors, and on 
 many of them were wonderful pictures of far- 
 away landscapes; of beautiful sunset clouds; 
 of fair, floating angel forms, and, best of all, 
 true and lifelike portraits of the noblest men 
 and women of the nation. Long before this 
 was accomplished the stammering stranger had 
 become recognized as the greatest artist of 
 the age. 
 
 The next question which arose in the mind 
 of the King and his ever faithful counsellor, 
 Blessed-Eyes, was as to the best way to use 
 
72 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 the now truly magnificent buildings, so that all 
 the people might enjoy them. While still full 
 of these thoughts, Blessed-Eyes one day 
 noticed a man wearily pacing up and down 
 the court with bowed head, and hands clasped 
 behind his body. On coming nearer Blessed- 
 Eyes saw that he was blind. At the sound of 
 his approaching footsteps the man stopped and 
 said : 
 
 "Ah! that is the step of Blessed-Eyes I 
 Much as he has been able to help his fellow 
 men, there is nothing that he can do for me I " 
 
 " Indeed, " said Blessed-Eyes, cheerily, " I 
 am not so sure of that. If you can tell a man 
 by his step you must certainly have very good 
 hearing." 
 
 o 
 
 " Ah ! " said the man, " I can hear a leaf 
 fall to the ground a block away." 
 
 " Indeed !" exclaimed Blessed-Eyes gladly, 
 " You are just the man for whom I have been 
 looking. Surely a man whose hearing is so 
 acute must be a good musician." 
 
 " Yes, yes ! " said the man impatiently, " I 
 am the finest conductor of an orchestra in the 
 whole world, but that avails me but little in 
 these days. Nobody cares for good music 
 now I " With these words he shrugged his 
 shoulders and was about to pass on. 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 73 
 
 " Come with me to the King," cried 
 Blessed-Eyes, " I think he has need of you." 
 
 After a long talk with the King, and some 
 experiments by which they tested the man's 
 fine sense of hearing, the King felt quite sure 
 that he was exactly the man needed as leader 
 for the great orchestra which he generously 
 supported that the people might learn to love 
 good music, so he was at once put in charge 
 of the same. The new musician proved to be 
 such a wonderful leader that no man in the 
 whole orchestra dared play a false note, and 
 soon their music under this remarkable 
 director, was famed throughout the land, until 
 thousands upon thousands came to hear the 
 afternoon concerts which were given each day 
 in the largest of the beautiful, white marble 
 buildings. 
 
 One bright, spring morning Blessed-Eyes 
 started out to enjoy the sunshine and the per- 
 fume of the flowers and the glad song of the 
 birds. " Ah," thought he, as he walked 
 along, drinking in great draughts of the fine, 
 fresh air, " no human being can possibly be 
 sad on such a morning as this." But while he 
 was yet speaking, his eyes fell upon the tear- 
 stained face of a woman. As it was impossi- 
 ble for Blessed- Eyes to pass any one who was 
 
74 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 in trouble, he stopped and said gently, " Dear 
 Madam, is there anything I can do for you? " 
 
 " Alas, alas! " said the poor woman, 
 "What can you, or anyone else, do for a 
 broken-hearted mother whose four little chil- 
 dren have been taken by death from her arms. 
 Unless I have children to love, life has no 
 brightness for me." 
 
 "Surely," said Blessed-Eyes softly and 
 compassionately, " there are yet many children 
 who need your love. Will you not come with 
 me to the palace of the King? " 
 
 The woman looked puzzled and perplexed, 
 but so sweet and gentle had been the tone of 
 his voice that she instinctively followed him. 
 I do not know just what happened in the con- 
 sultation with the King, but this I do know, that 
 only a few days elapsed before the " Court of 
 Honor " rang each day with the voices of 
 happy children as they followed the no longer 
 sad-faced woman around to the concert hall to 
 hear the sweet music, or off to the buildings 
 whose walls were covered with beautiful pic- 
 tures, or back again to their own handsome 
 building, set apart for their particular use by 
 the King. 
 
 Here the told them stories and taught them 
 songs and led them in charming games and 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 75 
 
 plays, and trained their little hands into skill- 
 ful work until throughout the kingdom there 
 was no happier band of children than those who 
 had once been the waifs of the city, wandering 
 through its streets. So full of motherly love 
 was the woman 's work with her new children 
 that other beautiful and noblewomen came, in 
 time, and joined her in it, until at last there 
 was no child in the whole city who had not 
 learned how to use his hands skillfully, how 
 to love sweet music, how to enjoy beautiful 
 pictures and how to be kind and thoughtful 
 towards others. 
 
 In time many of these children grew into 
 manhood and womanhood and became musi- 
 cians, artists, authors, physicians, clergymen, 
 and wonderfully skilled workmen of all sorts. 
 Many of the women married and became loving 
 and wise mothers because of the training they 
 had received from the pale-faced, childless 
 woman in the King's " Court of Honor." 
 
 At last the good King died, and the question 
 arose, " Who shall be our next King." The 
 counsellors of the nation met together to de- 
 cide the matter. They sent to the stonema- 
 sons far away in the back country and the 
 great master-mason cried, "Let Blessed-Eyes 
 be our King ! Did he not teach me how to 
 
76 JJV STORY-LAND. 
 
 use my strong arms? Has he not furnished 
 bread for us and our families?" And the 
 hundreds of stone-cutters and miners and dig- 
 gers round about shouted aloud, " Long live 
 King Blessed-Eyes!" 
 
 Then they sent to the various villages and 
 towns of the Kingdom and the architects said 
 44 Let Blessed-Eyes be King! Has he not 
 created the great Court of Honor from which 
 we have all learned to make beautiful what- 
 ever we build!' And the carpenters and 
 joiners and plasterers and painters all cried 
 out, " Long live King Blessed-Eyes ! " 
 
 Then they sent to the mills and the factories 
 of the great cities and the masterworkmen and 
 designers answered and said, " Why not make 
 Blessed-Eyes our King? It was he who first 
 introduced Art into our land and showed us 
 how to make as beautiful as pictures our 
 carpets and curtains and walls. Have not 
 these things made our merchandise sought for 
 all over the world." Then the spinners and 
 weavers and dyers all shouted aloud, " Long 
 live King Blessed-Eyes ! " 
 
 Then they sent to all the colleges and schools 
 in the land and the grave presidents and super- 
 intendents said, " We know of no better man 
 than Blessed- Eyes. He first taught us that a 
 
THE FAIR WHITE CITY. 77 
 
 love of the beautiful should be part of each 
 child's education. " Then the youths and the 
 maidens, the boys and the girls, and even the 
 little children shouted until they were hoarse, 
 " Long live King Blessed-Eyes! " 
 
 Then the whole nation seemed to cry out, 
 " Blessed-Eyes, Blessed- Eyes, Long live King 
 Blessed-Eyes I " There is none among us 
 whom he has not helped. When the news was 
 brought to Blessed-Eyes that all the people 
 desired him to rule over them, he smiled 
 gently and said, ' I had hoped to rest now, 
 but if I can serve my country I must do it." 
 So he was made King and the nation became 
 wise and great and powerful under his reign. 
 For the little children grew up learning to love 
 the beautiful and to see it everywhere until at 
 last there was a whole nation of blessed-eyes, 
 and every city in the land became as beautiful 
 as was the White City by the Lake. 
 
THE LOVING CUP WHICH WAS 
 MADE OF IRON. 
 
 Upon the edge of a great forest a woodcut- 
 ter had built him a cottage, and soon he 
 brought a fair young bride to live in it. She 
 was a neat, trim, little body, who wasted noth- 
 ing and kept everything in the house in perfect 
 order, so that in a short time their small yard 
 showed her care also. 
 
 One day some cousins came from town to 
 see the woodcutter, and his wife. They 
 brought with them their dinner in a large 
 basket, and a jolly time they had of it, 
 wandering through the woods, lying on the soft 
 green grass, and gathering the wild flowers. 
 Finally, hunger drove them back to the wood- 
 cutter's house, and as they sat on the porch 
 eating their luncheon, they thoughtlessly threw 
 the skins of their oranges and the banana peel- 
 ings on the grass in front of them. The 
 woodcutter's wife said nothing, but she felt 
 sure that such litter and dirt on the fresh green 
 grass would grieve the wood-fairies who were 
 trying to keep the forest and all of its sur- 
 (78) 
 
THE LOVING CUP. 79 
 
 roundings as beautiful as possible. Therefore 
 when the guests had gone, she quietly picked 
 up all the skins and scraps of paper and burned 
 them. 
 
 This so pleased the wood-fairies, that when 
 her first boy baby came, they sent him a loving- 
 cup of gold. Around it were circles of dia- 
 monds and pearls and deep red rubies. Of 
 course, the young mother was very happy, for 
 she knew that such a gift meant her son would 
 some day possess much money. So she set 
 herself to work to make her yard more beauti- 
 ful than it had been before, by planting flower- 
 seeds in a border by the fence. " If my son 
 is to become a rich man," said she to herself, 
 " he must learn to love what is beautiful, that 
 he may use his money wisely." She did not 
 stop when she had made her own yard beauti- 
 ful, but soon began scattering more flower-seed 
 down by the spring that the wood-fairies 
 might have flowers to enjoy while they came 
 to drink. Before long her kind heart led 
 her to plant other flowers by the dusty road- 
 side and down in the lonely valley, in order 
 that weary travelers, as they journeyed along, 
 might see the bright blossoms and smell the 
 sweet perfume. 
 
 This pleased the wood-fairies even more 
 
80 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 than her thoughtful tidiness had done, so, 
 when her second boy baby came, they sent 
 him a loving-cup of pure silver. Around the 
 outside of it were carved pictures of youths 
 and maidens dancing in a circle on the green 
 grass. This gift made the mother even hap- 
 pier than the first had done, for she read in 
 the carving on the cup that her boy would love 
 the open air and would grow up strong and 
 healthy and her heart grew tender to all things 
 about her. 
 
 She had noticed that some of the ugliest and 
 most neglected weeds often bore delicate 
 flowers, which, however, soon faded for lack 
 of care. " I will see," said she, " if I cannot 
 make the weeds grow into flowers by watering 
 them and pruning them and lovingly caring 
 for them. In this way I can help to make the 
 whole forest wholesome, and thus show the 
 wood-fairies that I am grateful to them for 
 their gift of health to my second son." 
 
 She began by caring for the weeds which 
 stood nearest her own home, and was rewarded 
 by seeing them slowly change into shapely 
 plants and their blossoms become strong and 
 beautiful. Then her care extended to the 
 weeds along the wayside, and in a short 
 time there was not a hurtful weed to be 
 
THE LOVING CUP. 81 
 
 found in the neighborhood. All had been 
 changed, by a little patient cave, into strong, 
 thrifty shrubs and plants, each blooming 
 according to its own nature, but all gladden- 
 ing the sight by their bright flowers and 
 healthy green leaves. 
 
 This changing of weeds into flowers so sur- 
 prised and delighted the wood-fairies who had 
 never heard of such a thing, that when her 
 third boy-baby came, they consulted among 
 themselves and decided to send him the best 
 gift they had to bestow. Accordingly they 
 sent to the new baby a loving-cup made of 
 strong, black iron, and with it, three large 
 earthen jars. One was filled with the sweetest 
 golden nectar ever tasted by mortal lips, 
 another contained a brown vinegar so sour 
 that half a teaspoonfui of it would make your 
 face wrinkle, while the third jar held a black- 
 ish-looking gall, of such a bitter flavor that 
 one drop of it would make one shrink from 
 ever wanting to taste it again. With this 
 strange present they sent word that if the 
 mother loved her boy, whom by the way she 
 had named Philip, she would mix a cupful of 
 the sweet nectar, the sour vinegar and the bit- 
 ter gall, using half as much vinegar as she 
 did nectar, and half as much gall as vinegar, 
 
 -4. 
 
82 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 and give it to the boy to drink on his birth- 
 day, each year, until he was twenty-one years 
 old. 
 
 The mother hesitated. It seemed so hard 
 to make her darling child taste of the bitter 
 gall when there was plenty of the sweet nectar 
 to last until he was grown, but she knew that 
 the wood-fairies were wise. Were they not 
 trying to make the whole earth beautiful? 
 Surely they would not require so hard a thing 
 of her unless it was for little Philip's welfare. 
 
 Therefore, each succeeding birthday she 
 mixed the fairies' drink and poured it into the 
 iron cup and gave it to the child. Sometimes 
 he cried and sometimes he fretted, but she 
 held the cup firmly to his lips until the last 
 drop was drained, and then she would kiss 
 him and tell him that he was her dear, brave 
 boy, and would some day thank her for mak- 
 ing him drink the fairies' potion. He soon 
 found that if he drank the contents of the 
 loving-cup early in the morning, he tasted 
 nothing but the sweet nectar, whereas if he 
 put it off until noon, he could not taste any- 
 thing but the sour vinegar, and when he 
 delayed the drinking of it until night, it 
 seemed as if the whole contents of the cup 
 had changed to gall, and he would be days 
 
THE LOVING- CUP. 83 
 
 and days getting over the bitter taste. So 
 being a sensible boy, he learned to drink it as 
 soon as it was mixed. 
 
 Each year he grew more loving and thought- 
 ful of others, more like the wood-fairies in his 
 effort to make the world around him beautiful. 
 Little by little he gained the power which the 
 wood-fairies alone can give the wonderful 
 power of knowing just what is going on in the 
 hearts of the people about you, even when 
 you do not speak to them or they to you. 
 
 If he chanced to meet a sad-faced man or 
 woman on the street, his beautiful eyes seemed 
 to say more tenderly than words could say, " I 
 see you are in trouble and I feel so sorry for 
 you." If he passed a group of merry makers, 
 his smile was so bright that they knew it 
 meant " What a lot of fun you are having! 
 I am so glad ! " As he grew older his hands 
 became almost as wonderful as his eyes, or 
 his smile. If he found a little child crying 
 over a broken toy he would stop and mend it, 
 and in a few moments the tears would be 
 gone and the little one would go off laughing 
 or singing, hugging his mended toy. 
 
 Sometimes a young girl would come to him 
 with a beautiful picture which she had been, 
 embroidering on a screen, but which had been 
 
84 /AT STOBY-LAND. 
 
 spoiled by some crooked, careless stitches, 
 and he would patiently sit down beside her 
 and would point out to her just where the 
 wrong stitches had been put into the picture, 
 and would help her take them out. Then he 
 would show her how to put in the right kind 
 of stitches and she would go away happy and 
 contented, ready to work day by day on the 
 lovely screen with which she was someday go- 
 ing to make her future home beautiful. 
 
 Now and then a young musician would find 
 that his silver flute played only harsh discords 
 instead of sweet melodies and he would grow 
 discouraged and be ready to throw it away, 
 when Philip would come along and pick up the 
 flute quietly and examine it and discover that 
 the jarring sounds came because it was not free 
 from the dust and dirt of the street. Then he 
 would tell the young player what was the mat- 
 ter and would stay with him until he had made 
 the flute as clean as a flute should be, and he 
 was usually rewarded by some fine music from 
 the grateful musician. Occasionally he would 
 come across a man toiling along the road with 
 a pack on his back y so heavy that he was bent 
 nearly double by it. Then Philip would stop 
 him and plan with him how the load could be 
 divided into two packs so that he might carry 
 
THE LOVING CUP. 85 
 
 one under each arm, and thus be able to walk 
 straight and erect and hold his head up as a 
 man should. Nobody ever dreamed of telling 
 him a lie ! < He knows just how we feel" 
 people used to say, and somehow the sight of 
 his strong, manly face stirred within them a 
 desire to be brave and noble, and true, and he 
 was beloved by all who knew him. 
 
 This indeed was the most precious gift which 
 the wood- fairies could give. 
 
HANS AND THE FO UR BIG GIANTS. 
 
 Once upon a time there lived a little boy 
 whose name was Hans. His home was in a 
 village where the tall trees shaded the green 
 grass that grew around the houses. Hans 
 loved his home very much. He loved to hear 
 the birds sing and to watch them fly high in the 
 air, and he often threw crumbs upon the 
 ground for them to eat. He loved the bright 
 red and blue and yellow flowers which grew in 
 the garden behind the house. He delighted in 
 the sweet odors which came all unseen from 
 their very hearts. So he gladly watered them 
 when they looked thirsty. His mother soon 
 taught him how to place strong straight sticks 
 beside the weak vines so that they, too, could 
 climb up and get the sunlight. Hans loved 
 the dear old hens and their downy little chick- 
 ens that were not afraid to peck the grain out 
 of his hand. In fact, Hans loved everything 
 and everybody about him, from the small 
 naked worms which crawled about among 
 the clods of earth, up to the strange and 
 (86) 
 
HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS. 87 
 
 beautiful stars which shone so high above his 
 head. 
 
 He was a very happy, little fellow, always 
 busy, always finding something to do for some- 
 body. 
 
 By and by, when he grew to be a tall, 
 strong lad, he used to go with his father to 
 the forest to chop wood and thus help earn 
 money which went to buy food and clothes 
 for his mother and his three younger brothers, 
 for Hans' father was poor and money was 
 scarce in his family. 
 
 After a time, when Hans had grown so tall 
 that you and I would call him a young man, 
 his father said to him: Hans, my boy, it is 
 time now that you started out to hunt some 
 work for yourself. Your next younger brother 
 can help me with the wood chopping and the 
 smaller ones can help the mother in the work 
 about the house. You must go out into the 
 world and learn how to take care of yourself, 
 and perhaps some day you may have to take 
 care of your mother and me when we grow 
 too old to work." 
 
 So Hans' mother packed his clothes in a 
 little bundle, and, as she kissed him good-bye, 
 she said : " Hans, my precious son, always be 
 brave and true, and the good God will take 
 
88 IN STOUT-LAND. 
 
 care of you." Hans then bade farewell to 
 his father and his younger brothers and 
 started on his journey. 
 
 He walked a long way until by and by he came 
 to a great city, where the houses looked dingy 
 with smoke and the rattle of the carts and 
 wagons made an incessant roar. After a time 
 he found some work in the shop of a black- 
 smith, and although the work was grimy and 
 rather hard to do Hans used to like to see the 
 sparks fly from the red hot iron every time he 
 struck a blow with his heavy hammer. He 
 was very proud when at last he could shape 
 the hard iron into a fine horseshoe almost as 
 well as the smith himself. Hans did not know 
 it, but this very work was making his arms grow 
 big and strong and his chest broad and full. 
 
 Every day Hans used to see a beautiful 
 princess drive past the blacksmith's shop. 
 She was the most beautiful princess in the 
 world, and although her blue eyes and golden 
 hair were admired by everyone, she was chiefly 
 beloved because of her sweet smile. Hans 
 used often to say to himself: " How I wish I 
 could serve this lovely young princess." At 
 last one day he went to the palace gate and 
 asked the gatekeeper if there was not some 
 work in the palace which he could do. 
 
HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS. 89 
 
 " What can you do?" asked the gate- 
 keeper. 
 
 " I am willing to do any kind of work which 
 the king may need to have done," answered 
 Hans. 
 
 Then the gatekeeper passed him on to the 
 keeper of the king's palace. 
 
 'What can you do? "again asked the 
 keeper of the king's palace. 
 
 " I am willing to do any kind of work which 
 the king may need to have done," replied 
 Hans. 
 
 So the keeper of the palace told the king that 
 there was a strong, tall young man without 
 who wanted to serve him. ' Bring him to 
 me," said the king. When Hans came into 
 the presence of the mighty king the monarch 
 looked at him very hard for a few moments 
 and then said: " What can you do, young 
 man?" And again Han? replied: " I am will- 
 ing to do anything that you may need to have 
 done. I would like to serve the beautiful 
 princess." 
 
 " You would, would you?" cried the king. 
 " Now I will test you. In the bottom of the 
 North Sea there lies a string of enchanted 
 pearls. If you will get those pearls and bring 
 them to me you shall serve my daughter, the 
 
90 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 princess, and in time I may make you governor 
 over one of my provinces; who knows? " And 
 the king laughed to himself. 
 
 Hans was wild with delight and, turning, 
 hastened out of the palace. The very next 
 day he started on his journey to the North 
 Sea. He walked and walked a long way 
 until he was very tired. At length, just 
 ahead of him, he saw a big giant rushing 
 along in the strangest fashion. 
 
 " Good morning" said Hans, as he caught 
 up with the giant. " What a very large giant 
 you are ! ' ' 
 
 " Yes," replied the giant, looking down at 
 Hans, " I have need to be both large and 
 strong. Where are you going, young man? " 
 
 44 1 am going," answered Hans, " to the 
 North Sea to try to get a string of enchanted 
 pearls which lies at the bottom of the sea." 
 
 "Ah!" said the tall giant, it will take 
 you a long time to get there. Now if you 
 could walk as fast as I can, it would be an 
 easy matter." 
 
 " How fast can you walk? " asked Hans. 
 
 " I can walk faster than a greyhound can 
 run," said the giant, " and when I run, the 
 swift river cannot keep pace with me." 
 
 "Can you, indeed?" exclaimed Hans. 
 
HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS. 91 
 
 "What a fine fellow you are! I wish you 
 would come along with me. After I find the 
 string of pearls I want to get back to the 
 king's palace as soon as possible, for I am to 
 serve the beautiful princess/' 
 
 "If that's the case," said the giant, I 
 think I will go along with you." 
 
 The two walked along, chatting together, 
 until they saw what Hans thought must be a 
 huge round stone lying in the road. When, 
 however, they came up to it, he saw that it 
 was another big giant lying asleep by the road 
 side. The hot sun was pouring down upon 
 his face. " Stay here," said Hans, " until I 
 can cut a branch from some tree to shade that 
 poor fellow's face. The sun is so hot it will 
 soon blister him." 
 
 At these words the tall giant laughed aloud. 
 " Ho, ho ! " he cried, " don't you know who 
 that is? He is a neighbor of mine. He has 
 such strong eyes that he can see a fly on a leaf 
 of a tree a mile away." 
 
 The loud laugh of the tall giant awoke the 
 sleeping giant, and he opened his great eyes 
 and stared at Hans. What are you doing, 
 young man?" growled he. 
 
 " Oh, nothing," said Hans. " I was merely 
 sticking these branches into the ground so 
 
92 IX STOKY-LAND. 
 
 that they might keep the sun out of your 
 eyes." 
 
 " Bah I " cried the great giant, sitting up, 
 " did you not know that my eyes were so 
 strong that I could look the noonday sun 
 straight in the face? " 
 
 " Indeed ! Indeed! " said Hans. What 
 a wonderful giant you must be. I wish you 
 would come with me. I may need your strong 
 eyes, for I am on my way to the North Sea to 
 search for an enchanted necklace of pearls 
 which lies at the bottom of the sea." 
 
 44 Oh ho!" said the giant, " if that's the 
 case I think I will go with you." 
 
 So Hans and the two big giants walked on 
 together. They had not gone more than 
 three or four miles when Hans spied another 
 great giant sitting under a tall tree. As they 
 came up to him the wind blew his hat off his 
 head. " I will fetch it for you," cried Hans, 
 as he ran forward after the hat ; but before he 
 could get to the spot where the hat lay, the 
 big giant reached out his long arm and himself 
 picked up his hat and put it again on his head. 
 At this all three of the huge giants laughed. 
 
 " Didn't you know that he was the giant 
 who could reach 500 yards? " asked the long- 
 legged giant. 
 
HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS. 93 
 
 " No," exclaimed Hans, clapping his hands 
 with delight. " You are just the giant I need. 
 When I get to the North Sea you can reach 
 down to the bottom of it and pick up the en- 
 chanted necklace of pearls. Will you not 
 come and help me? " 
 
 The new giant thought for a minute or two 
 and then said : " Oh, yes ; I will go along if I 
 can be of any use to you." 
 
 So Hans and the three big giants started gay- 
 ly forward on their journey to the North Sea. 
 They had not gone far before Hans saw in the 
 distance another giant quietly leaningup against 
 a very large rock. He seemed so deep in 
 thought that he did not see Hans and his fel- 
 
 o 
 
 low travelers until they came near to where he 
 stood. Hans noticed that both of this giant's 
 ears were stopped with cotton. " Have you 
 the earache? " asked Hans. " Perhaps I can 
 do something to ease your pain." 
 
 " Oh, no," said the giant, " I merely stuffed 
 cotton into my ears to shut off some of the 
 sounds about me. I can hear so well that I 
 can tell what men are saying a hundred miles 
 away from me." 
 
 ' What a valuable giant you must be I ' 
 exclaimed Hans. " Will you not come with 
 me? When I get the enchanted necklace of 
 
94 /2V STORY-LAND. 
 
 pearls you can tell me whether it will be safe 
 to take it back to the king's palace." 
 
 The giant being very good-natured, said: 
 * * You think you will need me, do you ? Well, 
 I'll go along." 
 
 So Hans and the four big giants walked 
 until they came to the North Sea. Then they 
 got into a boat and rowed out to the deep 
 water. The gaint who could see so far soon 
 found the place where the necklace lay on the 
 sand at the bottom of the sea. Then the giant 
 whose arms were so long reached down and 
 picked up the necklace and laid it in the boat. 
 Hans and the giants now rowed back to the 
 shore. 
 
 As soon as they had landed, the giant who 
 could hear so well took the cotton out of his 
 right ear and listened to what was being said 
 at the king's palace. He heard the people in 
 the palace talking of a grand festival which 
 was to take place the next night in honor of 
 the birthday of the beautiful princess. He 
 then told Hans of what he had heard, and the 
 giant who could run so fast stooped down and 
 let Hans climb up and seat himself on his 
 great shoulders, and away the two sped, faster 
 than a bird could fly. They reached the 
 palace in time for Hans to give the enchanted 
 
HANS AND THE FOUR BIG GIANTS. 95 
 
 necklace of pearls to the king, just as he was 
 about to seat his beautiful daughter upon a 
 throne beside his own. 
 
 The king was so pleased to get the necklace 
 that he at once gave Hans the office of serving 
 the beautiful princess. Hans served her so 
 faithfully that she learned to love him dearly, 
 and in time they were married. When the old 
 king died Hans was made king and the beau- 
 tiful princess was a queen. Hans, you may be 
 sure, took good care of his old father and 
 mother and both he and his queen did every- 
 thing they could to make all the people in 
 their kingdom industrious and happy. 
 
 Hans persuaded his four friends, the giants, 
 to come and live in his kingdom, and through 
 them it became the richest and most prosper- 
 ous country on the face of the earth, so 
 that travelers came from all over the world to 
 visit it. 
 
STORY OF THE 8 MALL GEE EN 
 CATERPILLAR AND THE BEAU- 
 TIFUL WHITE BUTTERFLY. 
 
 [ADAPTED.] 
 
 In a kitchen garden at the rear of an old, 
 brick house in a country town, stood long 
 rows of stately corn, whose shining green 
 blades glistened in the sun and rustled if a 
 passing breeze spoke to them. Near at hand 
 were some thickly-leaved currant bushes which 
 looked as if they had been so busy bearing 
 bunches of juicy, red currants that they had 
 found no time to grow tall like their neigh- 
 bors, the com. 
 
 Just across the garden-path was a fine bed 
 of feathery asparagus, separated from the rest 
 of the garden by a low wooden border about 
 two inches high. I do not know as to whether 
 or not it was this exclusive life they lived that 
 made them so lacking in strength, but they 
 were swayed by the slightest breath of air, 
 now this way and now that. In the same gar- 
 den were many other vegetables, and towering 
 (96) 
 
THE CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY. 97 
 
 far above them all were some giant plum 
 trees. At least they seemed like giants to the 
 potato vine and tomato plants near by, both 
 of whom were of a creeping nature and had a 
 great admiration for anybody, or anything, 
 that was higher than themselves. The young 
 potato vines used to look up from the top of 
 their hills and wonder if they would ever get 
 as near to the sky as the branches of the plum 
 trees seemed to be. Silly things I They did 
 not know that their only value lay in their 
 keeping close to the ground and bearing as 
 many fine, smooth-skinned potatoes as possi- 
 ble ; that is, the younger vines did not know 
 this important fact. 
 
 Our story, however, is not about the potato 
 vines, but of something very wonderful which 
 took place upon the outside leaf of a round, 
 green cabbage-head which stood along with the 
 other cabbage-heads in one corner of the 
 garden. I don't believe you would have 
 understood much of what was going on if 
 you had been there, any more than did the 
 happy-faced, little, black-eyed woman who 
 owned the garden. She thought she loved 
 her garden, every tree, and shrub, and herb 
 that grew in it; still she spent a great deal 
 more time looking at the swift-flowing river 
 7 
 
98 Itf 8 TOBY-LAND. 
 
 and the stretch of hills beyond than she did 
 at her cabbage-heads. Her neighbors said 
 she was very far-sighted and called her clever, 
 but the ants and beetles which lived in the 
 garden knew that she was dull, because she 
 spent hours each day poring over stupid 
 books, while the most wonderful things were 
 happening all around her, under her very nose, 
 as it were, or rather, I should say, perhaps, 
 under her very feet things far more interest- 
 ing than her books could possibly have been. 
 Among these wonderful things of which 
 her garden could have told her was the life- 
 story of a little green caterpillar whose home 
 was on the outside leaf of a large green cab- 
 bage-head. He was not an inch long and not 
 much bigger around than a good-sized broom 
 straw, yet he was an honest little fellow in his 
 way, and spent most of his time crawling about 
 on his cabbage-leaf and nibbling holes in it, 
 which you know, is about all a caterpillar can 
 be expected to do. The great, beautiful sun, 
 high up in the sky, sent his bright rays of light 
 down to warm the little caterpillar just as 
 regularly and with seemingly jnst as much 
 love as he sent them to make the thousand 
 wavelets of the swift-flowing river sparkle and 
 gleam like diamonds, or as he sent them down 
 
THE CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY. 99 
 
 to rest in calm, still sunshine on the quiet hill- 
 tops beyond. 
 
 The little green caterpillar's life was a very 
 narrow one. He had never been away from 
 his cabbage leaf, in tact he did not know that 
 there was anything else in the world except 
 cabbage leaves. He might have learned some- 
 thing of the beautiful silvery moon, or the 
 shining stars, or of the glorious sun itself, if 
 he had ever looked up, but he never did, 
 therefore the whole world was a big cabbage- 
 leaf to him, and all of his life consisted in 
 nibbling as much cabbage-leaf as possible. 
 
 So you can easily imagine his astonishment 
 when one day a dainty, white butterfly settled 
 down beside him and began laying small green 
 eggs. The little caterpillar had never before 
 seen anything half so beautiful as were the 
 wings of the dainty, white butterfly, and when 
 she had finished laying her eggs and flew off, 
 he for the first time in his whole life, lifted his 
 head toward the blue sky that he might watch 
 the quick motion of her wings. She was 
 soon beyond the tallest leaves of the tomato 
 plants, above the feathery tips of the fine 
 asparagus, even higher than the plum trees. 
 He watched her until she became a mere speck 
 in the air and at last vanished from his sight. 
 
100 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 He then sighed and turned again to his cabbage 
 leaf. As he did so his eyes rested on the 
 twenty small green eggs which were no larger 
 than pin heads. 
 
 " Did she leave these for me to care for? " 
 said he to himself. Then came the perplexing 
 question how could he, a crawling cater- 
 pillar, take care of baby butterflies. He 
 could not teach them anything except to crawl 
 and nibble cabbage leaves. If they were like 
 their beautiful mother, would they not soon fly 
 far beyond his reach? This last thought 
 troubled him a great deal, still he watched 
 over them tenderly until they should hatch. 
 He could at least tell them of how beautiful 
 their mother had been and could show them 
 where to fly that they might find her. 
 
 He often pictured to himself how they would 
 look, twenty dainty little butterflies flutter- 
 ing about him on his cabbage leaf for a time, 
 and then flying off to the blue sky, for aught 
 he knew, to visit the stars with their mother. 
 He loved the great sun very dearly now, be- 
 cause it sent its rays down to warm the tiny 
 eggs. 
 
 One day he awoke from his afternoon nap 
 just in time to see a most remarkable sight ! 
 What do you think was happening? One 
 
THE CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY. 101 
 
 after another of the small green eggs were 
 breaking open, and out were crawling what 
 do you suppose! Little white butterflies? 
 No, nothing of the kind Little green cater- 
 pillars were creeping out of each shell. Their 
 foster-father, as he had learned to call himself, 
 could hardly believe his own eyes. Yet there 
 they were, wriggling and squirming, very 
 much like the young angleworms in the ground 
 below. 
 
 "Well, well, well!" said he to himself, 
 " who would ever dream that the children of 
 that beautiful creature would be mere cater- 
 pillars?" Strange as it seemed to him, there 
 was no denying the fact and his duty was 
 to teach them how to crawl about and how to 
 nibble cabbage leaves. " Poor things," he 
 used to say as he moved among them, "you 
 will never know the world of beauty in which 
 your mother lived, you will never be able to 
 soar aloft in the free air, your lives must be 
 spent in creeping about on a cabbage leaf and 
 filling yourselves full of it each day. Poor 
 things! Poor things! " 
 
 The young caterpillars soon became so 
 expert that they no longer needed his care. 
 Feeling very tired and sleepy, he one day 
 decided to make for himself a bed, or bag 
 
102 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 and go to sleep, not caring much whether or 
 not he ever awoke. He was soon softly 
 wrapped from head to foot in the curious cov- 
 ering he had made, and then came a long, long 
 sleep of three weeks or more. When at last 
 he awakened, he began to work his head out of 
 his covering. Soon his whole body was free 
 and he began to breathe the fresh air and feel 
 the warm sunshine. He was sure that some- 
 thing had happened to him though he could 
 not tell what. He turned his head this way 
 and that, and at last caught sight of his own 
 sides. What do you think he saw? Wings! 
 Beautiful white wings ! And his body was 
 white, too ! The long sleep had changed him 
 into a butterfly ! 
 
 He began to slowly stretch his wings. They 
 were so new he could hardly believe that they 
 were part of himself. The more he stretched 
 them the more beautiful they became, and soon 
 they quivered and fluttered as gracefully as 
 did other butterfly wings. Just at this mo- 
 ment a strong, fresh breeze swept over the 
 garden, and before he had time to refuse, the 
 new butterfly was lifted off the cabbage leaf 
 and was dancing through the air, set- 
 tling down now on a bright flower, and 
 now on a nodding blade of grass, then up 
 
THE CATERPILLAR AND BUTTERFLY. 103 
 
 and off again. He rejoiced gaily in his free- 
 dom for a time, but soon came the longing to 
 try his wings in the upper sunshine. 
 
 Before attempting the unknown journey, 
 however, he flew back to the round, green 
 cabbage-head on which he had lived so long. 
 There were the twenty, small, green cater- 
 pillars, still creeping slowly about and filling 
 themselves with cabbage-leaf. This was all 
 they knew how to do, and this they did faith- 
 fully. ' Never mind, little caterpillars, " said 
 the new butterfly as he hovered over them, 
 " keep on at your work ; the cabbage leaf 
 gives you food, and the crawling makes you 
 strong. By and by you, too, shall be butter- 
 flies and go forth free and glad into God's 
 great upper world." 
 
 Having said this in so low a tone of voice 
 that you would not have heard him had you 
 been standing close by, he flew far away, so 
 far that neither you nor I could have followed 
 him with our eyes. As for the happy-faced, 
 little, black-eyed woman, she did not even 
 know that he had been near her, for her eyes 
 were fastened on her book, as usual. But the 
 small, green, caterpillars must have heard, 
 for they went on crawling and nibbling cab- 
 bage-leaves quite contentedly, and not one of 
 
104 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 them was ever heard to complain of having to 
 be a caterpillar, though occasionally one and 
 then another of them would lift his head, and 
 I doubt not he was thinking of the time when 
 he, too, should become a beautiful white 
 butterfly. 
 
THE DISCONTENTED MILL WIN- 
 DOW. 
 
 A tall flour mill once stood in tho midst of 
 a busy noisy town. Its steep, slanting roof 
 was far above any other roof in the place, and 
 its many windows looked out over the chimney 
 tops, and into the back yards and saw all that 
 was going on in them. 
 
 Under the very eaves of this slanting roof 
 was a little round window. Because it was so 
 high above the other windows, from it you 
 could have seen not only all that was being 
 done in the busy city, but the broad, green 
 fields outside of the town, and, on a clear day, 
 you could even have caught a glimpse of the 
 vast ocean which lay shining so mysteriously 
 beyond the end of land. It was because this 
 glimpse of the great ocean could be seen 
 through the little round window that the 
 mill-owner brought many visitors up to the top 
 story to see the beautiful vision. Oftentimes 
 the guests reached the window, panting, and 
 out of breath from having to climb so many 
 steps, but they always exclaimed, ' How glad 
 
 (105) 
 
106 I2V STORY-LAND. 
 
 I am thai I came ! How beautiful it is I How 
 beautiful it is! " 
 
 Every noon some of the tired, dusty work- 
 men would come and look out of the little 
 round window, sometimes almost forgetting to 
 eat the bread and meat they held in their 
 hands. Oftentimes the window would hear 
 them say, " It rests one's tired bones to know 
 that the great ocean is not so far away after 
 all." There was one pale, sad-faced man who 
 used to come every day and lean his elbows 
 on the window sill and gaze, and gaze as if he 
 were never tired of looking out on the view 
 which the little round window presented. 
 
 When the mill whistle sounded its shrill, 
 sharp note, telling the men that the noonday 
 rest was over and that they must be back at 
 their work, the pale, sad-faced man would 
 sigh, and as he turned away, would say softly 
 to himself, " I don't believe I could stand the 
 grind of this mill life if I didn't get a breath 
 of ocean air from this window each day I M 
 
 Once in a while, a good father would bring 
 his children up to the window and, lifting them 
 in his strong arms, would let them see the 
 green fields and shining ocean. Then the 
 children would clap their hands and shout 
 aloud for joy. Occasionally one would beg 
 
THE DISCONTENTED MILL WINDOW. 107 
 
 that he might be allowed to go away from the 
 noisy, dusty town, through the broad, green 
 fields to the endless ocean beyond. 
 
 At night when all the town was hushed in 
 sleep, and even the green fields looked cold 
 and dark, and deep shadows seemed to be on 
 every object, the vision of the great ocean 
 was, if possible, more beautiful than during 
 the bright day. At such hours the little, 
 round window had the gleam of the never 
 sleeping waters all to itself, as very few 
 people have courage to climb much in the 
 night, and none of them, knew how beautiful 
 the mighty ocean looked in the midst of dark- 
 ness. So they lost the gleam of the heavenly 
 stars as they were reflected in its wavelets. 
 Sometimes the broad silver path which the 
 rnoon spread upon the surface of the water 
 looked as if it might be the shining stairway 
 to the heavenly gates themselves, and the 
 little round window felt quite sure that it 
 saw bright angels ascending and descending 
 this silvery stairway just as they had done 
 in the dream of Jacob of old. At such times 
 the little window would tremble all over with 
 delight. 
 
 But alas I alas ! now comes the sad part of 
 my story. Time passed on, and so many 
 
108 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 people came to look through the little, round 
 window that scarcely a day went by in which 
 the window did not hear exclamations of 
 pleasure and admiration escape from their lips. 
 Soon the foolish little window began to think 
 that the people were talking of it, and not of 
 the vision of the great ocean which could be 
 seen through its round window pane. Thus 
 it grew proud and vain, and thought it some- 
 how, must be superior to ordinary glass 
 windows, and therefore it ought not to be 
 treated like them. So when the wet rain 
 clouds came one day, as usual, to wash the 
 dust off the faces of all the windows in the 
 town, the little round window in the top 
 of the tall mill refused to bo washed. *' Tut, 
 tut, tut!" said the rain, ' what nonsense! 
 A window is good for nothing unless it is 
 washed about once in so of ten. " 
 
 However, the vain, little window would not 
 listen, but held on to the grimy soot and yellow 
 dust which had accumulated upon its surface. 
 Even the rattle of the fierce thunder did not 
 frighten it, and when the wind sighed and 
 sobbed and moaned as if to beg the little 
 window to be sensible and take the washing 
 which the rain was trying to give it, the ob- 
 stinate window merely shook in its frame and 
 
THE DISCONTENTED MILL WINDOW. 109 
 
 answered, " I tell you I am not like other 
 windows. Every body admires me. Why 
 should I have to mind that cold, wet rain, 
 just because other windows do. I am not 
 going to give up my soot and my dust. 1 am 
 going to do just as 1 please. Am I not above 
 all the other windows? It is well enough for 
 them to be slapped in the face by the rain and 
 even sometimes washed and scrubbed from 
 within, but none of that for me" 
 
 And thus the vain, foolish little window lost 
 its chance to be made pure and clean again. 
 
 Gradually the dust from the street, and the 
 smoke from the neighboring chimneys settled 
 thicker and thicker upon it, and of course the 
 view of the busy, noisy town, of the quiet 
 green fields and of the jrreat, shining ocean, 
 became dimmer and dimmer until at last they 
 were lost sight of altogether and nothing could 
 be seen but the round form of the window, so 
 thick was tho grime and dirt upon it. 
 
 Now the men ceased coming to the top story 
 at their noon time, and the owner of the mill 
 brought no more gue-ts to its side, and the 
 little round window, left to itself, became sad 
 and lonely. Day alter day passed and no one 
 came near it. In fact, people seemed to have 
 forgotten that it was in existence. One day 
 
110 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 two boys climbed to the attic in which it had 
 been built, and the little round window said 
 eagerly to itself, " Now I shall hear some of 
 the praise that belongs to me." But in a very 
 few moments one of the boys said " Whew I 
 how close and dark it is up here I Let's go 
 down I " " All right," replied the other, and 
 down they scampered without even so much as 
 noticing the dust-covered window. 
 
 At first the window was indignant at what it 
 termed their lack of appreciation. However, 
 as day and night succeeded each other and days 
 grew into weeks, and weeks stretched into a 
 month, the little round window had plenty of 
 time to think, and by and by came the thought, 
 " Why did people ever crowd around me, and 
 climb many stairs to get near me? " Then it 
 recalled the words which it had heard, and with 
 the recalling came the realization that the talk 
 had all been about the beautiful view which 
 it presented, and not about itself. 
 
 Then, indeed, it would have hung its head in 
 shame if it could have done so, but although a 
 window has a face, it has no head, you know, so 
 that all it could do was to turn itself on its 
 wooden pivots until its round face was ready to 
 catch any drop of rain that might fall. Nor did it 
 have long to wait. The beautiful white clouds 
 
THE DISCONTENTED MILL WINDOW. Ill 
 
 which had been drifting dreamily across the 
 blue sky, changed into soft gray, and then 
 their under parts became a heavy, dark 
 gray, and soon they began massing themselves 
 together. The wind arose and hurried the 
 smaller clouds across the sky as a general 
 might marshal his troops for a battle, and in 
 a little while the whole heavens were covered 
 with gray, not even a single spot of blue sky 
 remained, nor could one yellow sunbeam be 
 seen on the whole landscape. The low rumble 
 of thunder could now be heard, and quick 
 flashes of lightning darted from raincloud to 
 raincloud and back again as if they were mes- 
 sengers sent to see if all was in readiness for 
 the storm. Soon down poured the rain. 
 
 Not even the thirsty earth itself was more 
 glad to receive the tens of thousands of water- 
 drops than was the little round window in the 
 top story of the tall mill. It not only had its 
 outside face freed from the dust and soot, but 
 with some help from the wind, it managed to 
 turn its inside face out and thus be cleansed 
 within as well as without. 
 
 At last the storm passed away ; the sun 
 shone again; the trees rustled their fresh, 
 shining, green leaves, and all nature rejoiced 
 in the renewed life which the reviving rain 
 
112 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 had brought with it. The little round window 
 fairly glistened as its shining face caught the 
 golden radiance of the last beams of the set- 
 ting sun. " Ah, look at the round mill win- 
 dow ! " said the miller's wife, " the rain has 
 washed it bright and clean. See how it re- 
 flects the sunset. To-morrow we will go up 
 and get a view of the ocean from it I had 
 almost forgotten it." 
 
THE STRANGE 8 TORY OF A 
 WONDERFUL SEA-GOD. 
 
 I am going to tell you to-day one of the 
 strangest stories that has ever been told to 
 little children. It is such a wonderful story 
 that even grown people read it again and 
 again 
 
 Three thousand years ago Greek mothers 
 used to tell it to their children as they sat 
 together on the seashore. It is about a 
 famous king, named Menelaus, who after a 
 long and cruel war was over, started in his 
 good ship for his much loved home in Sparta. 
 Thinking only of himself in his impatience 
 to get home, he forgot to give worship to 
 the gods, to thank them for his deliverance 
 and to a^k them to guide him safely to his 
 journey's end. We shall soon see what 
 trouble his thoughtlessness brought upon 
 him, and not him alone, but all his fol- 
 lowers. 
 
 In those days there were no great ocean 
 steamers such as we have now, therefore 
 Menelaus and his men had to cross the dark, 
 8 (113) 
 
114 IV STOKY-LAND. 
 
 mysterious sea in small boats which they 
 rowed with oars. Sometimes when the wind 
 was favorable they would hoist a sail and thus 
 be helped along on their journey. As it was 
 impossible for them to go forward when the 
 strong, though invisible, wind was not blow- 
 ing in a favorable direction, you can easily 
 imagine their dismay when, having stopped 
 one evening in a sheltered bay on the coast of 
 a small island, they awoke next morning to 
 find the wind blowing steadily in the opposite 
 direction from the one in which they wished 
 to sail. They waited all day hoping that 
 the strong breeze would die down, or change 
 its direction . The next day and the next passed 
 and still the wind blew steadily away from 
 their beloved homes. Although it was invis- 
 ible it had more strength than all of them, 
 and they could make no headway against it. 
 Had they not watched it lift huge waves high 
 in the air and dash them against the sharp 
 rocks? Had they not seen it twist and turn 
 the strong branches of great trees, and some- 
 times bend, and even break their mighty 
 trunks? And yet they knew at other times 
 how gentle it could be. Had they not listened 
 to its soft, low song as it rustled over the tall 
 grass? How glad they always were when it 
 
THE WONDEBFUL SEA -GOD. 115 
 
 rattled and stirred their white sails, filling 
 their hearts with promises of help on the 
 way ? They could not always understand what 
 it was saying, but they felt sure that it came 
 from the ever-living gods and always brought 
 some message of love, or command to them. 
 
 So, as day after day it blew a fierce, wild 
 gale over their heads, and on beyond, hurry- 
 ing clouds across the sky, dashing the waves 
 against the shore, whirling the dust into their 
 faces and hurriedly uttering hoarse whispering 
 sounds as it passed them, they knew that it 
 was warning them against daring to continue 
 their homeward journey. 
 
 Twenty days had come and gone, and still 
 the wind kept up its fierce, loud tone of com- 
 mand as it rushed from the far away west, 
 shook the waters of the vast ocean, swept 
 over the small, rocky island and sped on 
 toward the east. The courage of the poor 
 sailors was almost exhausted. Their provis- 
 ions were giving out. They had to catch fish 
 to satisfy each day's hunger. Menelaus, their 
 chief, was wandering alone upon the seashore. 
 He was very unhappy, for he feared much 
 that all this trouble had come upon his com- 
 rades because he had not obeyed the law of 
 the gods before he left Egypt. So he was 
 
116 IN- STOKY-LAND. 
 
 much distressed in mind as he walked along 
 the sandy beach. 
 
 The sun was sinking to rest, the evening 
 shadows were settling down between the rocky 
 hills, the darkness of night was approaching, 
 when suddenly there stood before him a beau- 
 tiful being, of so dazzling an appearance that 
 he knew she could not be a woman, she must 
 be an immortal. Her saffron robes gleamed 
 with light as do the sunset clouds. Her face 
 was as radiant as are the last rays of the 
 departing sun. It was the beautiful goddess, 
 Idothea. Her face suddenly became stern as 
 she looked at King Menelaus and asked him why 
 he tarried idly upon the small, rocky island. 
 He replied that he did not willingly remain, but 
 that he must surely have sinned against the gods, 
 as they had sent a strong, fierce wind to hin- 
 der his homeward voyage. Then he earnestly 
 begged her to tell him what to do. The stern 
 look left her face as she heard him confess that 
 he had done wrong. She came nearer to him, 
 and herglittering robes changed from saffron to 
 pink, and blue, and even gray, and the lights 
 played above, around and about her in the 
 most wonderful fashion, changing each mo- 
 ment as she spoke. 
 
 She told him that she was the daughter of 
 
THE WONDERFUL SEA- GOD. 117 
 
 Proteus, the Ancient of the Deep, who, living 
 for thousands and thousands of years in the 
 bottom of the great ocean, had gone wherever 
 the restless waves of the sea had gone, and 
 had learned the secrets of both land and 
 water. He knew the song of the winds and 
 could interpret every message which they 
 brought from the gods, therefore he, and he 
 alone, could tell Menelaus what it was that 
 the strong, fierce wind had been crying out 
 to him and his companions for the past twenty 
 days. 
 
 Now comes the strange part of our story. 
 This sea-god, Proteus, was a most remarkable 
 being. He had the power to change himself 
 into whatever form he chose, as you will soon 
 see. The only way to get any secret from 
 him was to catch him when he was asleep, and 
 then to hold on to him, no matter what shape 
 he might choose to take, until at last he re- 
 turned to his original form of the old man of 
 the sea. 
 
 Idothea told Menelaus that this strange 
 father of hers would rise out of the sea at 
 about noon the next day, and would walk over 
 to a large cavern not far distant, where his sea- 
 calves took their daily sleep, and that when he 
 had counted them to see if they were all 
 
118 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 there, he would lie down in the midst of them 
 and go to sleep also. This, said she, would 
 be the time for Menelaus and three of his 
 trusted sailors to spring upon him and seize 
 him firmly, and she added that they must hold 
 on to him, no matter what happened, until he 
 changed back into his own form, that of an 
 old man ; then they could ask him any ques- 
 tions they wished and he would be compelled 
 to answer them. 
 
 Having given Menelaus these instructions, 
 the beautiful goddess suddenly plunged into 
 the ocean and the green waves closed over her. 
 
 With bowed head and mind filled with anx- 
 ious thought Menelaus returned to his men. 
 They gathered round their boats on the sea- 
 shore and ate their scanty evening meal. 
 Silently and solemnly the night settled down 
 upon the landscape and made the trees look 
 like dark, shadowy forms, and the outlines of 
 the hills grew dim, and the ocean was covered 
 by the hush of the darkness, and silence reigned 
 over all. 
 
 The sailors threw themselves down upon the 
 sand and were soon fast asleep. Menelaus lay 
 beside them, but I fear much that he did not 
 sleep. His mind was troubled. What would 
 the next day bring forth ? He was to meet the 
 
THE WONDERFUL SEA-GOD. 119 
 
 strange and terrible Ancient of the Deep, and 
 was to struggle fiercely with him. Would he 
 be able to cope with the monster? Would he 
 have the courage to hold on to him? What 
 awful and unknown shapes might not the 
 creature take? These and a hundred other 
 questions kept rising in his mind and banished 
 all sleep from his eyes. One by one the stars 
 came out in the deep, black sky above his head. 
 Had not the gods kept them in their places 
 for unnumbered ages? Could not these same 
 gods protect and strengthen him when they 
 knew that in his heart he was striving to learn 
 what was their will? The night slowly wore 
 away, and when the faint purplish light softened 
 the eastern sky, he arose and going apart from 
 his sleeping comrades, he knelt down and 
 prayed earnestly to the ever-living gods. 
 Then returning to his men, he awoke the three 
 whom he could trust the most, and taking 
 them with him he sought the spot where the 
 goddess Idothea had promised to meet him. 
 She, radiant as the dawn, was already there 
 awaiting him. 
 
 As they approached she plunged into the sea 
 and was lost to sight. In a few moments, 
 however, she re-appeared bringing with her the 
 newly flayed skins of four sea-calves. Then 
 
120 IN STOEY-LAND. 
 
 quickly digging four oblong holes in the wet 
 sand she commanded Menelaus and his three 
 companions to lie down in them. This they 
 did, and she skillfully spread over each of 
 them, one of the skins which she had brought 
 from the bottom of the ocean. After they 
 were so closely covered that even the shrewd 
 Proteus would mistake them for sea-calves, 
 the radiant goddess seated herself on a rock 
 not far distant, to await his coming. 
 
 The horrible smell which came from the 
 skins of the newly-slain sea-calves was so sick- 
 ening that Menelaus and his three comrades 
 could not stand it, and were about to give up 
 the attempt to capture the sea-god, when the 
 shining goddess came to the rescue. Bringing 
 from, they knew not whence, some fragrant 
 ambrosia, the food of the immortals, she 
 placed it beneath their nostrils and its sweet 
 perfume made them forget the loathsome 
 coverings with which they were concealed. 
 Its refreshing odor soon restored their strength 
 and thus they were able to remain hidden until 
 the noon hour. 
 
 Then the sea-calves floundering much rose 
 from the depths of the ocean and began crawl- 
 ing along the sand. They came in throngs and 
 laid themselves down in rows upon the sandy 
 
THE WONDEBFUL SEA-GOD. 121 
 
 shore beside the brave but anxious heroes. 
 Soon the sunlit waves parted from right to left 
 and slowly and solemnly Proteus, the Ancient 
 of the Deep, appeared. His hair and beard 
 and garments were covered with white foam. 
 He walked over to where his sea-calves lay 
 basking in the sun and counted them. This 
 was a trying time for Menelaus. His heart 
 beat loud and fast, so great was his fear that 
 he and his companions might be discovered. 
 But the goddess had done her work too well 
 for that. Proteus did not notice any differ- 
 ence between them and the beasts which lay 
 about them. Having finished his task, he 
 stretched his body upon the sand beside his 
 flock, ready for his afternoon nap. 
 
 Now was the critical moment ! Menelaus 
 and his men throwing off the skins of the dead 
 sea-calves sprang forward with loud shouts, 
 and before the old sea-god knew it, they had 
 fast hold of his arms and legs. 
 
 Proteus having the power to change his body 
 into whatever shape he pleased, suddenly trans- 
 formed himself into a roaring lion, so fierce 
 and strong that it seemed as if he might crush 
 anything that came in his way. Still Mene- 
 laus and his stout-hearted men held on. Then, 
 in an instant the lion became a fiery panther 
 
122 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 whose glaring eyes struck terror into their 
 hearts, but still they held on. In a moment 
 more a large snake was twisting and writhing 
 in their hands, hissing and darting his forked 
 tongue out as if he would gladly poison all of 
 them, still they held on. Shape after shape the 
 monster assumed, but still they held on. Now 
 it was a clear, harmless stream of water flow- 
 ing gently through their hands. Again it was 
 a flame of fire darting here and there threaten- 
 ing to scorch their faces and even to burn out 
 their eyes ; still they held on. Then it became 
 a beautiful tree, tall and stately, with broad 
 spreading branches and shining green leaves, 
 still they held on. 
 
 At last, finding that his enchantments were 
 of no avail he changed back into his real form 
 and turning to Menelaus he said, " What 
 wouldst thou have?" Menelaus begged him 
 to tell why he and his faithful sailors were kept 
 from crossing the dark waters of the sea 
 to their distant homes. Then Proteus, the 
 Ancient of the Deep, who knew all secrets of 
 both gods and men, told him that he must go 
 back to Egypt where he had sinned, and do all 
 that he could to atone for that sin before he 
 might hope to reach his beloved home. 
 
 Menelaus now understood what the wind had 
 
THE WONDERFUL SEA-GOD. 123 
 
 been trying to tell him. Each hoarse whisper 
 as the gale rushed by, meant " Return to 
 Egypt! Return to Egypt!" In fact, all 
 these twenty days it had been blowing in that 
 direction, as if to assure the manners that it 
 would fill their sails and help them to return 
 to Egypt if they would only launch their boats 
 and turn the prows eastward. 
 
 This they did the very next day, and soon 
 were back on Egypt's shore. Due worship 
 was paid to the gods, and then right merrily 
 the wind whistled and sang about their ears as 
 it filled their white sails and helped them to 
 speed across the blue water, and in a few days 
 they had reached their beloved home-land. 
 
 But never to the end of their lives did they 
 forget the terrible struggle with the Mighty 
 Proteus, Ancient of the Deep, where by hold- 
 ing on they had won the silent battle.. And 
 oftentimes they told the story to their children 
 and grandchildren, just as I am telling it to 
 you, to-day. 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 
 
 I want to tell a beautiful story to you, 
 dear children. It has been told over and 
 over again for six hundred years, yet people 
 keep reading it, and re-reading it, and wise 
 men never tire of studying it. Many great 
 artists have painted pictures, and sculptors 
 have made statues, and musicians have com- 
 posed operas, and clergymen have written 
 sermons from thoughts inspired by it. A 
 great poet first gave it to the world in the 
 form of a grand poem which some day you 
 may read, but I will try to tell it to you 
 to-day as a short story. I am afraid that you 
 would go to sleep if I should undertake to 
 read the poem to you. You do not yet know 
 enough about life to understand it. 
 
 Once upon a time, very long ago, there was 
 a man whose name was Dante. He had done 
 wrong and had wandered a long way from his 
 home. He does not tell us how, or why. 
 He begins by saying that he had gone to sleep 
 in a great forest. Suddenly he awoke, and 
 (124) 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 125 
 
 tried to find his way out of it, first by one 
 path, and then another; but all in vain. 
 
 Through an opening where the tall trees had 
 not grown quite so thick, he saw in the dis- 
 tance a great mountain, on the top of which 
 the sun was shining brightly. * Ah I " thought 
 he to himself, " if I can but reach the top of 
 that mountain I am sure I can see a long way 
 in every direction. No woods can grow tall 
 enough to keep me from finding my path 
 then I" So with new courage he started to- 
 ward the mountain, but he had not walked far 
 when a beautiful spotted panther stood with 
 glaring eyes in his pathway. He trembled, 
 for he knew that going forward meant that he 
 would be destroyed. He turned hastily aside 
 into another path, but he had gone only a short 
 distance in this direction before he saw a huge 
 lion coming toward him. In greater haste 
 than before he turned into still another path. 
 His heart was beating very fast now, and he 
 hastened along without taking much notice of 
 what lay before him. Suddenly he came upon 
 a lean and hungry wolf, which looked as if he 
 could devour half a dozen men. Dante turned 
 and fled back into the dark woods, " where 
 the sun was silent." He thought, " What is 
 the use of trying to get out of this terrible 
 
126 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 forest? There are wild beasts on every side. 
 If I escape one I am sure to be devoured by 
 another; I might as well give up trying. " 
 He had now lost all hope. 
 
 Just at this moment he saw a man coming 
 towards him. The face of the man was beam- 
 ing with smiles as if he had some good news 
 to tell. Dante ran forward to meet him, cry- 
 ing, " Have mercy on me, whoever you are ! 
 See that beast from which I have fled ! My 
 body is trembling yet with fright.!' 
 
 The strange man, whose name was Virgil, 
 told Dante that he had come to help him, but 
 that they would have to go by another path to 
 get out of this savage wilderness. He then 
 explained that they must go down through a 
 deep, bad-smelling and dark hole in the 
 ground, and must meet with many disagree- 
 able things and crawl through much dirt and 
 filth ; but after they had gone through this 
 close, dirty tunnel, they would again see the 
 light, and if they had strength enough to 
 climb, they might in the end get to a delight- 
 ful spot on the top of the mountain called the 
 Terrestrial Paradise, from which lovely place 
 Dante could go home if he wanted to. 
 
 At first Dante was afraid to go with Virgil, 
 although he had often read the wise and noble 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 127 
 
 books which the latter had written. But when 
 he heard that Beatrice, whom he had loved as 
 he loved no one else on earth, had come from 
 Heaven in the form of a bright Angel to urge 
 Virgil to come to him, his heart was so filled 
 with joy that he at once renewed his courage, 
 and told Virgil to go forward, promising that 
 he would trust him as a guide. 
 
 They then began their perilous journey. 
 The dark pit through which they were to pass 
 was the shape of an immense funnel or a cone 
 turned upside down. It was so large that it 
 reached from the surface down to the very 
 center of the earth. Indeed, though it was as 
 twilight where they entered, and was quite 
 wide and airy, yet as they slowly traveled 
 down its rocky sides the place grew darker 
 and narrower and the air more stifling, and 
 the smell was worse than anything of which 
 you have ever dreamed. At times Dante 
 nearly fainted, but Virgil put his arms around 
 him and held him up until he revived. I will 
 not stop to tell you of all the horrible expe- 
 riences they went through. By and by when 
 you grow to be men and women, you can read 
 the whole poem for yourselves. 
 
 At last they reached the bottom of the foul 
 pit ; it was the very center of the earth, and 
 
128 IN STOUT-LAND. 
 
 was the darkest spot possible. Then they 
 began to climb through the narrow opening 
 which they saw. They wanted to get to the 
 surface on the other side of the world, and 
 again see the light of the sun. 
 
 Dante felt as if he were escaping from a 
 terrible plague-stricken prison-house. The 
 first things he looked at were four beautiful 
 stars shining far above his head ; then he knew 
 he was where he could get fresh air and light, 
 for he felt sure that where stars were to be 
 seen air and light could be found. He soon 
 discovered that he was on a large island, in 
 the middle of which stood a great mountain. 
 This, Virgil told Dante, was the mountain 
 which they would have to climb. 
 
 It was Easter morning ! 
 
 As they were looking about them, not 
 knowing exactly which way to turn, they saw 
 an old man with a long white beard. His 
 face was so radiant that it reminded Dante of 
 the stars at which he had been gazing. The 
 old man told them where to go to begin the 
 ascent of the mountain. But he said that Virgil 
 must first get the grime and dirt off of Dante. 
 You know we cannot very well get into dirty 
 places without having some of the cinders and 
 ashes and other filth stick to us. He also 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 129 
 
 kindly told them where they could find some 
 easily bent rushes which they could use to 
 gird up Dante's long cloak, so that he might 
 climb the better. 
 
 I think it must have been the old man's 
 kindness to the many strangers who came to 
 the island that caused his face to look so 
 beaming as to remind Dante of the stars. 
 Poor Dante thought over all his past life, how 
 he had wandered away from his home, how he 
 had found himself in the gloomy woods, how 
 he had met the fierce beasts, and last of all he 
 thought of the blackening dirt he had gotten 
 on himself in coming through the deep hole. 
 Then he thought of his rescue from all these 
 evils and the tears rolled down his cheeks. 
 Virgil spread his hands out upon the grass, 
 still wet with the dew from heaven, and with 
 the moisture thus gained, he washed Dante's 
 face. The tears Dante was shedding helped 
 to wash away the dirt. 
 
 After this they went to where the rushes 
 were growing and gathered some for a belt for 
 Dante. Strange as it may sound to you, dear 
 children, as fast as they gathered one rush, 
 another sprang up in its place. They bound 
 these enchanted rushes around Dante's waist, 
 9 
 
130 /# STOBY-LAND. 
 
 and he was now ready for the upward climb 
 and was quite eager to begin. 
 
 They turned and looked once more at the 
 ocean. Dante's eyes were just beginning to 
 get used to the sunlight. Suddenly he saw a 
 strange white light coming along the sea to- 
 wards them. He was astonished. As it came 
 nearer and nearer the light grew more and more 
 dazzling, and Dante saw that it was a glorious 
 and radiant angel! He fell upon his knees and 
 dropped his gaze to the ground, for the face 
 of the angel was so bright that he could not 
 look upon it. The strange and beautiful 
 being came swiftly forward, bringing with him 
 a email boat full of people, the very water 
 became resplendent with light as the boat 
 moved swiftly through it, yet the angel had 
 neither oar nor sail. His shining wings, 
 spread high above his head, seemed to waft the 
 boat along by some invisible power. He 
 landed the people, and quick as a sunbeam 
 was gone. 
 
 The newly arrived souls came up to Dante 
 and Virgil and inquired the way, for they too 
 were going up the steep, rough mountain, 
 around which wound a difficult path. The end 
 of the path no one could see. They walked 
 along together for a short distance, and while 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 131 
 
 Virgil was searching the ground for the right 
 path, Dante lifted his eyes upward and saw 
 some people looking over a rocky wall that 
 bordered the road on the next bend above them. 
 To these fellow-travelers he called for help, 
 as he felt sure they must have found the right 
 path up the mountain's side. They gladly 
 pointed out the spot where Yirgil and Dante 
 could find the way, and soon they were upon it. 
 But now arose a serious difficulty. From the 
 growing twilight they knew that night was 
 coming on, and in this strange, new country 
 nobody dared travel in the dark. There were 
 too many pitfalls and stumbling blocks to make 
 it safe to travel without the light of the sun. 
 Virgil knew that the wisest and best thing to 
 do in hours of darkness was to keep still and 
 wait for more light. A man whom they had 
 met on the road pointed out a safe, little valley 
 where they could stay until the sunlight came 
 once more. 
 
 Ah, how I wish you could have seen that 
 valley ! 
 
 It was called the Valley of the Princes. As 
 they approached it a vision burst upon them 
 of the loveliest spot that could be imagined. 
 If gold and silver and scarlet and green and 
 blue and all the finest colors in the world were 
 
132 iy STOB7-LAND. 
 
 put together into a flower garden they would 
 not make anything half so beautiful as was 
 this Valley of the Princes. Not only were 
 the colors so fine, but the perfumes were the 
 sweetest ever breathed. They went quietly 
 and slowly into the valley and sat down. The 
 air about them grew darker and darker as the 
 sun set behind the mountains. 
 
 All at once Dante heard some voices singing 
 a gentle hymn. I think it must have been a 
 hymn something like our own little hymn, 
 'Wearily at Daylight's Close," for it made 
 Dante think of the Heavenly Father, and look 
 up into the sky, whose only brightness was 
 the stars shining far above his head. As he 
 looked he saw sweep down out of the high 
 heavens two glad angels of God, robed in pale, 
 shining green. Each was surrounded with a 
 radiance so bright that it was dazzling; both 
 carried swords of fire. Lightning never came 
 from the sky more swiftly than did these two 
 angels. They separated as they approached 
 the earth ; one placed himself upon the moun- 
 tain on one side of the valley and the other 
 upon the mountain on the other side. Dante 
 wondered what all this meant, but the man 
 who had told them where to find the valley 
 was still with them. He explained that the 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 133 
 
 angels had come to protect all travelers who 
 were staying in the dark valley until light 
 should come again and they could see to go 
 forward. 
 
 Just then Dante turned and saw a large, 
 ugly snake winding its way silently through 
 the grass. Quick as a flash of lightning one 
 of the angels descended from his high post, 
 and, with a touch of his flaming sword, turned 
 the snake, which fled in dismay. Then Dante 
 knew that the angels had indeed been sent 
 from heaven, and in his heart he felt very glad 
 that all through this dark night he might be 
 sure of their protecting love. So he quietly 
 laid himself down upon the grass, and went 
 to sleep. While sleeping he had a strange 
 dream ; an eagle of fire seemed to be bearing 
 him up through the air. 
 
 He awoke. It was morning; the sun was 
 shining and the birds were singing. Flowers 
 were blooming all around him and yet it 
 was not the same place in which he had gone 
 to sleep. He saw on looking about him that 
 he was farther up the mountain side. He 
 turned with a question to Virgil, who soon told 
 him that while he had slept in the Valley of 
 the Princes another angel, named Lucia, had 
 been sent from Heaven to bear him in her arms 
 
134 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 over the rough places where he could not have 
 traveled unaided, and that he now stood at 
 the real entrance of the path up the mountain. 
 
 " We must pass through that gate which 
 you see in front of you," said Virgil, " and 
 before you enter it I must tell you that 
 there will be some very hard climbing for 
 you, and sometimes you will grow weary and 
 discouraged, but be assured that it will become 
 less painful as you climb. The hardest part 
 is the first part. It grows easier and easier 
 as you near the top, untiU when you reach 
 the Terrestrial Paradise, there will be no 
 longer any climbing at all. There you shall 
 see your beloved Beatrice and she will reveal 
 to you a vision of GOD." 
 
 With this they started towards the gate. 
 Now I must tell you about this gate, 
 children, because it was a very peculiar gate, 
 and some of these days you may have to go 
 through it yourselves. As they came near, 
 Dante saw that it had three broad steps lead- 
 ing up to it. The bottom step was like 
 polished marble, and so shining that you 
 could see your face reflected in it. Each 
 traveler who approached it saw just how 
 unclean he was, or how tired, or how cross 
 looking. The next step was a dark purplish 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 135 
 
 black step. It was cracked lengthwise and 
 crosswise, and had a sad look about it as if it 
 were sorry for the reflections which it saw in 
 the bottom step. The third step at the top 
 was red, so red that it reminded Dante of 
 blood. Above this towered the great gate- 
 way. Upon the sill of this gate sat another 
 wonderful angel in shining garments which 
 were brighter than the moon. His feet rested 
 upon the top step. 
 
 As Dante and Virgil approached, the angel 
 asked them what they wanted. They told 
 him that they wished to go through the gate 
 in order that they might climb the mountain. 
 The angel leaned forward, and with the edge 
 of the sword which he held in his hand he 
 printed on Dante's forehead seven letters. 
 Dante knew that the seven letters stood for 
 the seven things that were wrong inside of his 
 heart. Then the angel took from his side 
 a silver key and a golden key, and unlocking 
 the gate with each, he let it swing wide upon 
 its hinges, and our two travelers passed 
 through. 
 
 They had no sooner entered than they heard 
 a man singing praises to God. As they trav- 
 eled along the path which wound upward, 
 they saw upon the rocks at their sides won- 
 
136 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 derfully carved pictures of people who had 
 been good and kind and always thoughtful 
 of others instead of themselves. As Dante 
 looked at them they seemed to him to be the 
 most marvelous pictures he had ever seen. 
 He thought within his heart, " How beauti- 
 ful !" "How beautiful!" "How I wish 
 I could be like these people!" Then he 
 turned and looked down upon the rocks on 
 which he was treading, he saw there were 
 more carvings upon the stones below; but 
 these were of people who thought of nobody 
 but themselves haughty people, selfish peo- 
 ple, and idle ones. 
 
 As Dante gazed upon them, he bowed him- 
 self lower and lower, for he thought within his 
 heart, " I fear I am more like these people 
 than I am like the others." He had been a 
 proud and haughty man in the past, and now 
 he knew how ugly and selfish that haughtiness 
 was. As he ascended the road, he must have 
 prayed to God to make him more like the 
 beautiful and gentle people whose portraits he 
 had seen upon the rocks at his side. He had 
 been walking, bent very low ; all at once he 
 straightened himself up; he felt as if some 
 great weight had been lifted off his shoulders. 
 He turned to Virgil, saying, " Master, from 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 137 
 
 what heavy thing have I been lightened ?" 
 Virgil glanced up at his forehead. Dante 
 stretched forth the fingers of his hand and 
 felt the letters which the angel had placed 
 upon his forehead. There were but six. 
 There had been seven. Virgil smiled, and the 
 two passed on. 
 
 Their ears caught the sound of voices singing 
 in sweet tones, " Blessed are the poor in 
 spirit! "" Blessed are the poor in spirit I" 
 Then Dante knew that the other souls, too, had 
 prayed to God to take pride and haughtiness 
 and selfishness out of their lives. 
 
 They passed along to the higher terrace on 
 the mountain side, and here they saw no pic- 
 tures, but heard strange, sweet voices singing 
 through the air. These voices were singing of 
 the people who had been glad when others 
 were made happy, who had loved and praised 
 the good in those about them, who had rejoiced 
 when some one else besides themselves had 
 been commended. The voices seemed so joy- 
 ful as they told of these loving hearts, that 
 Dante shut his eyes and listened. Soon he 
 heard other voices tell of the people who had 
 liked to talk of themselves and not of others, 
 who did not care to hear anybody else praised, 
 people whom it made unhappy to know that 
 
138 IN STOEY-LAND. 
 
 anybody else was happy. " Ah ! " thought he 
 to himself, " I fear, I fear that I have been like 
 these last people of whom the voices tell such 
 sad, unhappy things. How I long with all my 
 heart to be freed from this hateful thing called 
 
 Then he prayed to God to help him 
 to rejoice over the happiness of others, to be 
 willing to help others, and to realize that 
 others were helping him ; and as he thought 
 these thoughts and prayed this prayer, another 
 burden seemed lifted from off him, and he 
 put his hand to his forehead and found that 
 another of the terrible letters was gone. He 
 had but five remaining on his forehead now, 
 and already the climbing seemed easier. 
 
 They soon came to another very difficult 
 passage in the road, and so rough and sharp 
 were the rocks which stood in the pathway that 
 Dante's heart failed him, and he must have 
 stopped in his onward journey up the mountain 
 had not another loving angel of God come 
 from some unseen point, and, lifting him with 
 strong arms, carried him over the hard place, 
 setting him again upon his feet. I think 
 Dante must have thanked God for thus send- 
 ing him help in his moment of discouragement ; 
 at any rate he felt that he had been slothful 
 
THE VISION OF DANTE. 139 
 
 and not eager enough to reach the top of the 
 mountain. 
 
 On and on he traveled, sometimes with 
 voices in the air singing to encourage him, 
 sometimes with warnings coming from un- 
 known quarters. The very trees laden with 
 fruit on the roadside seemed to say, " Take 
 enough of us, but do not eat too much; a 
 glutton cannot see GOD." 
 
 As they mounted higher and higher the 
 landscape grew broader and broader, and more 
 filled with a strange, new sunshine. The huge 
 boulders and angry-looking rocks below, which 
 had so frightened Dante as he began his jour- 
 ney, seemed now scarcely larger than pebbles 
 and little stones. He smiled to think that he 
 had never cared for them at all. Weariness 
 was now gone, the last of the mysterious letters 
 had vanished from his forehead, and the one 
 longing of Dante's heart was to meet again 
 his beautiful and beloved Beatrice, and be led 
 by her into the presence of the Great GOD of 
 the Universe, who had so wonderfully and so 
 mysteriously sent His angels to help him on 
 the way. 
 
 At last they reached the spot called the 
 Terrestrial Paradise, and there, as Virgil had 
 told him, stood his loving Beatrice, who took 
 
140 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 him by tne nand and led him up into Heaven 
 itself, beyond the clouds, beyond the stars, 
 beyond planets and worlds, even to the foot of 
 the Throne of GOD ! 
 
 Of this I cannot tell you. No words of 
 mine could make you see that glorious vision 
 as Dante then beheld it. Your own little 
 hearts must be freed from all wrong thoughts, 
 from all evil motives, from all selfish desires, 
 must be filled with a love of others, and with 
 generous willingness to do for others, and 
 then may come to you, too, some day, this 
 Great Vision that came to Dante. 
 
 And you will then learn that God is with 
 you all the time, but only the pure in heart 
 can see Him. 
 
STORIES OF HEROES. 
 
 (141) 
 
HO W LITTLE CEDUIG BECAME A 
 KNIGHT. 
 
 A long time ago there lived a little boy 
 whose name was Cedric. At the foot of a 
 high hill, on the top of which stood a grand 
 old castle, was the stone hut in which he lived. 
 The little boy had many a time watched the 
 strong, iron gate rise slowly from the ground, 
 as out of the courtyard of the castle would ride 
 Sir Rollin DuBois and his faithful soldiers. 
 There were sometimes two, or three visiting 
 knights and their followers and they were a 
 gay sight as the sun shone on their glittering 
 armor of steel and glanced from their bright 
 helmets. They looked so strong and resolute 
 as they sat, calm and erect, in their saddles. 
 A glance into their fine faces would have 
 assured you that they were noble and brave 
 and could be trusted by everybody, from the 
 King to the poorest peasant in the land. Their 
 very horses seemed proud to carry them as they 
 galloped along. Little Cedric thought there 
 never was anything more beautiful than these 
 
 (143) 
 
144 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 knights as they came down the hill on some 
 quest of adventure, or errand of mercy. 
 
 One day Cedric had been playing with his 
 pet kitten. After a good romp with her, he 
 had thrown himself down on the soft green 
 grass to rest, and the queer little kitten had 
 gone out into the middle of the dusty road and 
 curled herself up for a nice nap. Suddenly 
 Cedric looked up, and saw five knights with 
 all their squires and pages galloping down the 
 road I In a moment more his eye fell upon 
 the kitten lying fast asleep in the middle of 
 the highway. Fearing that the horsemen 
 would not see her, he sprang to his feet, ran 
 quickly forward and gathered the soft little 
 thing up in his arms, just in time to save it 
 from the horses' feet. 
 
 As the riders passed, one of the tall knights 
 slackened his horse and smiling down upon 
 Cedric said, " My little fellow, you are almost 
 brave enough to be a knight some day." He 
 then galloped on to join his party and soon the 
 yellow dust which they had raised from the 
 ground, settled down again. 
 
 Cedric stood looking after the horsemen 
 until they seemed a mere speck in the 
 distance and then disappeared all together. 
 He did not even notice the kitten in his 
 
LITTLE CEDBIC. 145 
 
 arms when she put her nose up against his 
 cheek. 
 
 At last he turned to go into the house, and 
 as he went, he said softly to himself, "To be 
 a knight some day!" "To be a knight 
 some day!" He ate his simple sup- 
 per of bread and milk in silence. His mother 
 noticed how quiet he was, but she said nothing, 
 for she knew that in his own good time he 
 would tell her all that was in his heart. 
 
 That night as he undressed for bed he 
 looked up at the stars and said in a soft, low 
 tone, " Beautiful stars, do you know what a 
 wonderful thing Sir Rollin said to me to-day? 
 He told me that perhaps some day I might be 
 a knight!" He could hardly sleep, he was 
 so happy. The great knight had spoken to 
 him, had praised his courage, and, best of all, 
 had said that perhaps, some day, he, Cedric, 
 might be a great knight himself! "Could 
 such a thing possibly come to pass?" He 
 asked himself this question over and over 
 again, until at last he fell asleep and 
 dreamed that he was a large, strong man, and 
 wore a shining armor of steel and rode a 
 splendid black horse, and carried a great sword 
 and that all the people of the country round 
 about honored and loved him because he 
 ML 
 
146 IN STOEY-LAND. 
 
 was one of the bravest knights in the whole 
 land. 
 
 Just as he was dreaming that he was about 
 to rescue a beautiful princess from an ugly 
 giant who had shut her up in a prison, he 
 heard his mother calling him. He opened his 
 eyes and saw that the sky was all pink and 
 gold with the clouds of the sunrise, and that 
 he was only little Cedric in his attic chamber. 
 He dressed himself quickly and climbed down 
 the wooden ladder to the room below. 
 
 He was soon busy and happy, helping his 
 mother feed the doves and water the cow and 
 fetch hay for the two horses. After his father 
 had eaten his breakfast, and had gone to his 
 work in the field, the little would-be knight 
 and his mother washed the dishes and tidied 
 the two small rooms. Cedric was very fond 
 of thus helping her with the work, and she 
 often said, " My little boy is both son and 
 daughter to me." By and by she sat down to 
 her sewing. Then Cedric could keep his 
 secret no longer. Going up to her, he 
 put his arm around her neck and whimpered 
 to her the story of the knight, how he had 
 stopped and spoken, and what he had said. 
 " Do you think I could ever grow up to be a 
 knight, mother?" asked he. His mother 
 
LITTLE CEDEIC. 147 
 
 smiled, and then looked sober as she brushed 
 his brown hair back from his forehead and 
 said, "Knights have many, many hard things 
 to do, my son, and oftentimes their lives are 
 in danger." " Yes, I know," answered 
 Cedric eagerly, " but think, mother, how brave 
 they are, and how good ! Do they not protect 
 our country?" " Yes," said his mother, 
 " I know all that. I could not sleep at night 
 when our enemies are near at hand if I did not 
 know that Sir Rollin Dubois and his brave 
 soldiers were on the hill close by. But you 
 are a very little boy, Cedric. Run out to your 
 play now." 
 
 Many times during the next few weeks 
 little Cedric thought of the grand knights and 
 how one of them had smiled at him and had 
 spoken as if he, Cedric, might some day be a 
 great, strong knight and ride a beautiful 
 horse, and do brave deeds. 
 
 Weeks passed by and the spring had changed 
 into summer. One evening, just as the setting 
 sun was turning all the white clouds into gold 
 and crimson, Cedric stood in the low doorway 
 wondering if where the angels lived could be 
 more beautiful than was the sky over his dear 
 mountain home. He suddenly heard the tramp 
 of horses' feet, and looking down across the 
 
148 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 plain, he saw a gay party of horsemen. Their 
 armor flashed and shone in the light of the 
 setting sun and their long white plumes waved 
 in the gentle evening breeze. His face 
 lighted up with a glad smile, for he knew that 
 it was Sir Kollin Dubois and his soldiers 
 returning from the terrible war to which the 
 King had sent them. They soon came near 
 enough for Cedric to see their faces, as the 
 heavy steel visors of their helmets were lifted 
 so that they might breathe more freely the 
 soft summer air. It had been a warm day, 
 and Cedric noticed that even the tallest knight 
 among them looked tired, and as if he would 
 be glad to get to the castle and lay aside, for 
 a while at least, his heavy armor. 
 
 Just as they were passing the door in which 
 Cedric stood, one of them stopped his horse 
 and leaning forward said, " My little man, 
 will you give me a drink of water? " Cedric 
 ran quickly and filled a cup with fresh, cool 
 water from the spring near by, and brought it 
 to the knight. "Thank you," said the noble- 
 man, as he handed the cup back to Cedric. " I 
 am very glad to be able to serve you," said 
 Cedric quietly. The knight smiled, gathered 
 up the reins of his horse, and said, " You are 
 as courteous as a knight, my boy." 
 
LITTLE CEDEIO. 149 
 
 That evening Cedric told his mother of this 
 second speech, and then he asked as a wistful 
 look came over his face, " Ah, mother dear, 
 do you think I can ever become a knight? " 
 
 Weeks passed into months and the soft, gray 
 snow clouds had covered the green hills with 
 the white mantle of winter. Whenever Cedric 
 felt like being rude, or cross, or selfish, he 
 thought of the bright smile on the great 
 knight's face that summer evening, when he 
 had asked for the cup of cold water, and he 
 felt sure the smile would change into a frown 
 if the knight should see him do a discourteous 
 or a selfish act. 
 
 A year or two had passed when one day 
 something happened which Cedric never for- 
 got. His father came in from his work and 
 said, " Sir Rollin Dubois wants a young lad 
 to come to the castle to take the place of his 
 page who has lately been promoted. Do you 
 think, wife, that our Cedric is strong enough 
 for such an office?" Cedric' s heart almost 
 stopped beating while he listened for his 
 mother's answer. She thought for a few 
 moments and then said slowly as if weighing 
 each word, " Yes, I think he would try very 
 hard to do his duty, and I should like to have 
 him learn more of knighthood. Perhaps some 
 
150 Ztf STORY-LAND. 
 
 day he too may be a knight, who knows?" 
 she added, as she turned smilingly to the 
 radiant face of her boy. 
 
 That very afternoon she made a bundle of 
 his few clothes, and his father took him by 
 the hand and walked with him up the steep 
 hill to the great castle gate. Cedric had 
 never before been so near the castle, and when 
 his father lifted the heavy iron knocker and 
 brought it down with two or three loud 
 knocks, it seemed to Cedric that his heart 
 was knocking almost as loudly. Not that he 
 was afraid, but he was stirred by the thought 
 of going into the presence of the great and 
 noble Sir Rollin whom all people loved and 
 revered. 
 
 The huge iron gate slowly lifted. The 
 drawbridge was already thrown across the 
 ditch of water which surrounded the castle and 
 in a few moments Cedric and his father had 
 passed under the stone archway and were 
 standing within the courtyard. A man took 
 them into a large room whose walls and floors 
 were of stone, and bade them sit down on a 
 wooden bench which stood near the door, say- 
 ing at the same time, "I will tell Sir Rollin 
 that you are here." 
 
 They had been waiting some time when a 
 
LITTLE CEDBIC. 151 
 
 door at the other end of the room opened and 
 a large, well built man, who looked so tall and 
 straight that he reminded Cedric of a moun- 
 tain pine, came forward. He was not dressed 
 in armor, but Cedric knew at once that it was 
 Sir Kollin Dubois. The knight talked a few 
 moments with Cedric's father and then turn- 
 ing to Cedric he said " And you think you 
 would like to become a knight, my boy? Are 
 you sure that you will not mind hard work 
 and will remember always to be true and pure, 
 brave and unselfish?" Cedric's smile was so 
 bright that no answer was needed. The knight 
 turned again to his father and said, " Do you 
 realize that it will take some ten years or more 
 of discipline and hard work on the part of 
 your boy, before he can hope to be promoted 
 to a position of responsibility?" "Yes," 
 said the father quietly, "but I think he is 
 willing to try it." 
 
 After a little talk it was decided that the boy 
 should begin his training then and there. So 
 his father bade him good-bye and left. Cedric 
 was taken by an older boy up some stone stairs 
 to a small room whose ceiling, walls and floor 
 were of stone. In the corner of the room lay 
 a pile of straw, over which had been thrown a 
 sheepskin. At one side of the room was a 
 
152 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 small table. No other furniture was in the 
 apartment save a cedar chest which was doubt- 
 less intended to serve for both chair and ward- 
 robe. There was a narrow pointed window in 
 one side of the room through which the sun- 
 light came. Cedric went up to the window 
 and looked out, but it was so high that he 
 could see only the blue sky and a soft white 
 cloud. " Ah," thought Cedric to himself, " I 
 can at least see the stars at night and the sun- 
 light each morning. Will they not remind me 
 always of the good God who watches over 
 me?" 
 
 That night his supper consisted of some 
 coarse barley bread and a bowl of broth. 
 Cedric, however, was used to simple food, and 
 did not mind this part of his discipline. As 
 he lay down upon the pile of straw and drew 
 the sheep-skin over him, he thought of his 
 nice warm bed at home, but instantly came this 
 other thought, " I must learn to be hardy and 
 strong if I am ever to do any great work in 
 the world. So, I will not mind such little 
 discomforts as these." 
 
 Cedric soon found that he had not only to 
 eat coarse food and sleep upon a hard bed, 
 but that he had to practice standing very 
 straight, running very swiftly, being able to 
 
LITTLE CEDRIC. 158 
 
 manage a horse, to jump on and off while the 
 horse was in full gallop, to throw his spear 
 with unerring accuracy, and also that he must 
 be prompt and ready to obey a call from Sir 
 Rollin, that he must not only learn to do 
 errands faithfully and quickly, but to wait 
 patiently and quietly oftentimes when he 
 could not understand why he waited. 
 
 Year after year passed by and little Cedric 
 had grown large and tall. When he visited 
 his home he used often to laugh at the little 
 bed which had once held him so cosily. Not 
 only had he grown strong and tall, but he had 
 grown even more in thoughtfulness and 
 courtesy toward all about him. 
 
 One day Sir Rollin sent for him. " Cedric, " 
 said he, " I wish you to take a message to the 
 King. It is quite an important one and it 
 must reach him before to-morrow night. Get 
 ready as quickly as you can. Take my gray 
 horse, as he is the swiftest one in the stables, 
 and remember that I have trusted you much 
 by sending you upon this errand.' 7 
 
 Cedric' s heart beat with joy, as he thought, 
 " At last I have proved faithful enough to be 
 sent with a message to our great King." He 
 was ready in less than half an hour, and 
 jumping on the splendid gray charger he went 
 
154 IN STOKY-LAND. 
 
 galloping down the highway. On and on he 
 rode. 
 
 At last he entered a thick forest of pine 
 trees. The road grew very dark and lone- 
 some. " What if I should meet some wild 
 beast,' 7 thought Cedric, but he added, half 
 aloud, " If I am ever to be a knight, I must 
 learn to be brave and face every danger." It 
 was not long before he was quite sure that 
 he heard a deep, low growl. His heart 
 beat fast, but he rode steadily forward and 
 soon the growl was repeated, this time nearer 
 and more distinct, and Cedric saw in the dim 
 light, a great wild boar coming towards him. 
 The creature's eyes were shining like fire, and 
 his white tusks overhung his lower jaw in a 
 fierce and forbidding fashion. Cedric knew 
 that this must be the beast which had de- 
 stroyed so many of the cattle of the neigh- 
 boring peasants, but who was so strong and 
 savage that no one had dared to go near 
 him. He spurred his horse forward as he 
 thought, " If I kill this wild boar I will 
 already begin to be of service to the people of 
 my country." So he lifted the spear which 
 he carried at his side, from its leathern socket, 
 and raising it high in the air, he hurled it 
 swiftly at the beast who was ready to spring 
 
LITTLE CEDRIC. 155 
 
 upon him. In a moment more the wild boar 
 rolled over upon the ground, dead. Cedric 
 reached down and drew his spear from its 
 side, and as he rode on again he thought, 
 " Wolves and wild boars must not stop the 
 way of a messenger of the King. I must fear 
 nothing if I am to be a knight." 
 
 After a time his road lay out of the forest 
 into the sunlight. As he approached a small 
 village he heard a great noise as of much 
 shouting and soon he saw a group of boys who 
 were evidently hooting and laughing at some- 
 thing in their midst. He rode up to where 
 they were and felt himself growing indignant 
 as he saw an old, deformed man standing in 
 their midst, at whom they were jeering. In a 
 moment he sprang from his horse and pressing 
 through the crowd of boys he stood beside the 
 old man. On his face was a flush of indignant 
 anger. " How dare you," he exclaimed,*' laugh 
 at or insult an old man like this? " The boys 
 drew back, frightened. Although he was 
 really no taller than they, he seemed to tower 
 above them. " My," exclaimed one of them 
 in a whisper, " doesn't he look like a knight 
 as he stands there ? " "I shouldn't wonder if 
 he were one," said another. 
 
 Cedric turned to the old man who was 
 
156 IN 8TOKY-LAND. 
 
 trembling in every limb. " Where are you 
 going? " asked he kindly. " Only to the next 
 village," said the old man, " but these boys 
 stopped me on my way. I cannot help my 
 deformity nor my old age. I wish I could." 
 The tears stood in his eyes as he spoke. 
 " Come," said Cedric gently, " let me help 
 you upon my horse. I, too, am going to the 
 next village." 
 
 When they had reached the next village 
 Cedric helped the old man from the horse at 
 his own door. Then, mounting, he thought 
 to himself, " I am very hungry, I think I will 
 stop at the village inn and get a good warm 
 supper." " No," said he on second thought, 
 " I cannot stop now. I have had to travel so 
 slowly because of the old man that I must 
 make up for lost time." With that he tight- 
 ened the rein of his beautiful horse, and the 
 two had soon left the village far in the 
 distance. Cedric reached back to a leather 
 pouch behind him and took from it a dry bis- 
 cuit which had to serve for his supper that 
 night. 
 
 Late in the evening he reached the house at 
 which he was to rest his horse and he himself 
 slept for a few hours. By dawn the next day 
 he was up and off on his journey. As he was 
 
LITTLE CEDBIC. 157 
 
 riding by a small stream of water he noticed a 
 poor, little fish that some thoughtless fisherman 
 had thrown upon the bank as too insignificant 
 to be taken home for breakfast. The tiny 
 creature was struggling and gasping for breath 
 as it vainly tried to get back into the water. 
 " Ah, you poor little thing," thought Cedric, 
 " I wish I had time to put you back into the 
 stream, but I haven't, and so he rode on. 
 Then came the thought, " A knight would 
 take time to help anything that was suffering. 
 If I am ever to be a knight I must do so too." 
 With this thought, he turned and was soon 
 back again at the spot where the little fish lay. 
 He got down off of his horse, and taking the 
 poor creature in his hand as gently as possible, 
 he stooped down and put it into the stream of 
 water. It swam rapidly away as if glad, 
 beyond words, to get back into its own ele- 
 ment. Its swiftly moving tail seemed to 
 Cedric, as he watched it for a moment, to say, 
 " Thank you, Cedric, thank you, thank you I" 
 He then jumped on his horse again and rode 
 on. 
 
 The day grew very warm, but Cedric knew 
 that he must not stop for his own comfort ; 
 his errand was an important one and he must 
 reach the King's palace before night. 
 
158 IN STORY-LKND. 
 
 At last the beautiful palace came in sight 
 and in a few moments Cedric had ridden into 
 the courtyard. He gave his letter to a servant 
 to carry it to one of the squires who gave it to 
 a courtier who presented it to the King; for 
 you must remember in those days a King 
 was a very great person, and only those men 
 who had risen high in rank could approach 
 him. 
 
 Among other things the note contained this 
 message. It told the King that the bearer was 
 a young lad who had been in training for 
 knighthood and that Sir Rollin had found him 
 always brave and trustworthy, true and 
 noble, kind and courteous, and that he, Sir 
 Rollin, thought if the King wanted him in 
 his army, he would find him worthy of the 
 place. 
 
 The King sent for Cedric to come to him 
 personally. Our little boy had grown into a 
 tall man, you know, and his frank, pure face 
 was good to look upon. The King told him 
 that he wished to put him in office in his 
 army ; and thus Cedric went to live in the 
 King's household and here he learned many 
 things which he could not have learned at the 
 castle of Sir Rollin DuBois. 
 
LITTLE CEDRIC. 159 
 
 Several years passed by, and Cedric had 
 been intrusted with many enterprises, both 
 difficult and dangerous. At last one day the 
 King sent for him to come into the throne 
 room. There sat the King upon a beautiful 
 throne of gold; beside him sat the queen. 
 Over their head was a crimson velvet canopy. 
 Standing about the room were a great number 
 of courtiers and grand ladies. As Cedric 
 entered the room, the King said, " Come 
 forward." 
 
 Cedric stepped forward and kneeled upon 
 one knee before the throne, as was the custom 
 in those days. The King raised his beautiful 
 golden scepter and struck Cedric lightly upon 
 the shoulder with it, saying at the same time, 
 "Kise, Sir Cedric of Altholstane." And 
 Cedric knew then that he was, at last, a 
 knight I 
 
 In time he had a beautiful castle of his 
 own, arid splendid armor, the most beautiful 
 black horse that you ever saw. The hand- 
 some horse used to prance and toss his head 
 proudly in the air as if he knew what a noble 
 young knight he was carrying. After a while 
 Cedric had a lovely wife and two or three 
 sweet little children of his own, and as he rode 
 
160 IN STOUT-LAND. 
 
 abroad over the country, many a time the 
 peasants standing in their cottage doors, 
 would say to each other, " There goes the 
 brave Sir Cedric of Altholstane. God bless 
 him ! May he live long to help protect our 
 country. " And all the people loved him. 
 
STORY OF CHRISTOPHER COLUM- 
 BUS FOR LITTLE CHILDREN. 
 
 Once upon a time, far across the great 
 ocean there lived a little boy named Christo- 
 pher. The city in which he lived was called 
 Genoa. It was on the coast of the great sea, 
 and from the time that little Christopher could 
 first remember he had seen boats come and go 
 across the water. I doubt not that he had 
 little boats of his own which he tried to sail, 
 or paddle about on the small pools near his 
 home. 
 
 Soon after he was old enough to read books, 
 which in those days were very scarce and 
 very much valued, he got hold of an account 
 of the wonderful travels of a man named 
 Marco Polo. Over and over again little Chris- 
 topher read the marvelous stories told by this 
 old traveler, of the strange cities which he had 
 seen and of the dark-colored people whom he 
 had met ; of the queer houses ; of the wild 
 and beautiful animals he had encountered; of 
 the jewels and perfumes and flowers which he 
 had come across. 
 
 11 (161) 
 
162 J2\T STORY-LAND. 
 
 All day long the thoughts of little Chris- 
 topher were busy with this strange far-away 
 land which Marco Polo described. All night 
 long he dreamed of the marvelous sights to be 
 seen on those distant shores. Many a time he 
 went down to the water's edge to watch the 
 queer ships as they slowly disappeared in the 
 dim distance, where the sea and sky seemed to 
 meet. He listened eagerly to everything 
 about the sea and the voyages of adventure, 
 or of trade which were told by the sailors 
 near. 
 
 When he was fourteen years old he went to 
 sea with an uncle, who was commander of one 
 of the vessels that came and went from the 
 port of Genoa. For a number of years he 
 thus lived on a vessel, learning everything 
 that he could about the sea. At one time the 
 ship on which he was sailing had a desperate 
 fight with another ship; both took fire and 
 were burned to the water's edge. Chris- 
 topher Columbus, for that was his full name, 
 only escaped, as did the other sailors, by 
 jumping into the sea and swimming to the 
 shore. Still this did not cure him of his love 
 for the ocean life. 
 
 We find after a time that he left Italy, his 
 native country, and went to live in Portugal, 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 163 
 
 a land near the great sea, whose people were 
 far more venturesome than had been those 
 of Genoa. Here he married a beautiful 
 maiden , whose father had collected a rich store 
 of maps and charts, which showed what was 
 then supposed to be the shape of the earth 
 and told of strange and wonderful voyages 
 which brave sailors had from time to time 
 dared to make out into the then unknown sea. 
 Most people in those days thought it was cer- 
 tain death to any one who ventured very far 
 out on the ocean. 
 
 There were all sorts of queer and absurd 
 ideas afloat as to the shape of the earth. Some 
 people thought it was round like a pancake 
 and that the waters which surrounded the land 
 gradually changed into mist and vapor and that 
 he who ventured out into these vapors fell 
 through the mist and clouds down into they 
 knew not where. Others believed that there 
 were huge monsters living in the distant waters 
 ready to swallow any sailor who was foolish 
 enough to venture near them. 
 
 But Christopher Columbus had grown to be 
 a very wise and thoughtful man and from all 
 he could learn from the maps of his father-in- 
 law and the books which he read, and from 
 the long talks which he had with some other 
 
164 I2V STORY-LAND. 
 
 learned men, he grew more and more certain 
 that the world was round like an orange, and 
 that by sailing westward from the coast of 
 Portugal one could gradually go round the 
 world and find at last the wonderful land of 
 Cathay, the strange country which lay far 
 beyond the sea, the accounts of which had so 
 thrilled him as a boy. 
 
 We, of course, know that he was right in his 
 belief concerning the shape of the earth, but 
 people in those days laughed him to scorn 
 when he spoke of making a voyage out on the 
 vast and fearful ocean. In vain he talked and 
 reasoned and argued, and drew maps to explain 
 matters. The more he proved to his own sat- 
 isfaction that this must be the shape of the 
 world, the more other people shook their 
 heads and called him crazy. 
 
 He remembered in his readings of the book 
 of Marco Polo's travels that the people whom 
 he had met were heathen who knew little 
 about the dear God who had made the world, 
 and nothing at all about His son, Christ 
 Jesus, and as Christopher Columbus loved 
 very dearly the Christian religion, his mind 
 became filled with a longing to carry it across 
 the great seas to this far-away country. The 
 more he thought about it the more he wanted 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 165 
 
 to go, until his whole life was filled with the 
 one thought of how to get hold of some ships 
 to prove that the earth was round, and that 
 these far-away heathens could be reached. 
 
 Through some influential friends he obtained 
 admission to the court of the King of Por- 
 tugal. Eagerly he told the rich monarch of 
 the great enterprise which filled his heart. It 
 was of little or no use, the King was busy 
 with other affairs, and only listened to the 
 words of Columbus as one might listen to the 
 wind. Year after year passed by, Columbus' 
 wife had died, and their one little son, Diego, 
 had grown to be quite a boy. Finally Colum- 
 bus decided he would leave Portugal and 
 would go over to Spain, a rich country near 
 by, and see if the Spanish monarchs would 
 not give him boats in which to make his 
 longed-for voyage. 
 
 The Spanish King was named Ferdinand, 
 and the Spanish Queen was a beautiful woman 
 named Isabella. When Columbus told them 
 of his belief that the world was round, and of 
 his desire to help the heathen who lived in this 
 far-off country, they listened attentively to 
 him, for both King Ferdinand and Queen 
 Isabella were very earnest people and very 
 desirous that all the world should become 
 
166 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 Christians ; but their ministers and officers of 
 state persuaded them that the whole thing was 
 a foolish dream of an enthusiastic, visionary 
 man ; and again Columbus was disappointed 
 in his hope of getting help. 
 
 Still he did not give up in despair. The 
 thought ivas too great for that. He sent his 
 brother over to England to see if the English 
 King would not listen to him and give the 
 necessary help, but again he was doomed to 
 disappointment. Only here and there could 
 he find any one who believed that it was pos- 
 sible for him to sail round the earth and reach 
 the land on the other side. Long years passed 
 by. Columbus grew pale and thin with wait- 
 ing and hoping, with planning and longing. 
 
 Sometimes as he walked along the streets 
 of the Spanish capital people would point 
 their fingers at him and say: " There goes 
 the crazy old man who thinks the world is 
 round." Again and again Columbus tried to 
 persuade the Spanish King and Queen that 
 if they would aid him, his discoveries would 
 bring great honor and riches to their king- 
 dom, and that they would also become the 
 benefactors of the world by helping to 
 spread the knowledge of Christ and His 
 religion. Nobody believed in his theory. 
 
CHBISTOPHER COLUMBV8. 167 
 
 Nobody was interested in his plan. He 
 grew poorer and poorer. 
 
 At last he turned his back on the great 
 Spanish court, and in silent despair he took 
 his little son by the hand and walked a long 
 way to a small seaport called Palos, where 
 there was a queer old convent in which 
 strangers were often entertained by the kind 
 monks who lived in it. Weary and footsore 
 he reached the gate of the convent. Knock- 
 ing upon it he asked the porter, who an- 
 swered the summons, if he would give little 
 Diego a bit of bread and a drink of water. 
 While the two tired travelers were resting, 
 as the little boy ate his dry crust of bread, 
 the prior of the convent, a man of thought 
 and learning, whose name was Juan Perez, 
 came by and at once saw that these two 
 were no common beggars. He invited them 
 in and questioned Columbus closely about 
 his past life. He listened quietly and 
 thoughtfully to Columbus and his plan of 
 crossing the ocean and converting the heathen 
 to Christianity. 
 
 Juan Perez had at one time been a very 
 intimate friend of Queen Isabella ; in fact, 
 the priest to whom she told all her sorrows, 
 and troubles. He was a quiet man and 
 
168 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 talked but little. After a long conference 
 with Columbus, in which he was convinced 
 that Columbus was right, he borrowed a 
 mule and getting on his back rode for many 
 miles across the open country to the palace 
 in which the Queen was then staying. I do 
 not know how he convinced her of the truth 
 of Columbus' plan, when all the ministers 
 and courtiers and statesmen about her con- 
 sidered it the absurdly foolish and silly 
 dream of an old man ; but, somehow, he 
 did it. 
 
 He then returned on his mule to the old 
 convent at Palos, and told Columbus to go 
 back once more to the court of Spain and 
 again petition the Queen to give him money 
 with which to make his voyage of discovery. 
 The State Treasurer said the Queen had no 
 money to spare, but this noble-hearted woman, 
 who now, for the first time, realized that it 
 was a grand and glorious thing Columbus 
 wished to do, said she would give her crown 
 jewels for money with which to start Colum- 
 bus on his dangerous journey across the great 
 ocean. 
 
 This meant much in those days, as queens 
 were scarcely considered dignified or respect- 
 able if they did not wear crowns of gold inlaid 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 169 
 
 with bright jewels on all public occasions, but 
 Queen Isabella cared far more to send the 
 gospel of Christ over to the heathen than 
 how she might look, or what other people 
 might say about her. The jewels were pawned 
 and the money was given to Columbus. With 
 a glad heart he hastened back to the little 
 town of Palos where he had left his young son 
 with the kind priest Juan Perez. 
 
 But now a new difficulty arose. Enough sail- 
 ors could not be found who would venture their 
 lives by going out on this unknown voyage with 
 a crazy old man such as Columbus was thought 
 to be. At last the convicts from the prisons 
 were given liberty by the Queen on condition 
 that they would go with the sailors and Colum- 
 bus. So, you see, it was not altogether a very 
 nice crew, still it was the best he could get, and 
 Columbus' heart was so filled with the great 
 work that he was willing to undertake the 
 voyage no matter how great or how many the 
 difficulties might be. The ships were filled 
 with food and other provisions for a long, 
 long voyage. 
 
 Nobody knew how long it would be before 
 the land on the other side could be reached, 
 and many people thought there was no pos- 
 sible hope of its ever being found. 
 
170 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 Early one summer morning, even before 
 the sun had risen, Columbus bade farewell to 
 the few friends who had gathered at the little 
 seaport of Palos to say good-bye to him. The 
 ships spread their sails and started on the 
 great untried voyage. There were three 
 boats, none of which we would think, nowa- 
 days, was large enough or strong enough to 
 dare venture out of sight and help of land and 
 run the risk of encountering the storms of 
 mid-ocean. 
 
 The names of the boats were the Santa 
 Maria, which was the one that Columbus 
 himself commanded, and two smaller 
 boats, one named the Pinta and the other the 
 Nina. 
 
 Strange, indeed, must the sailors have felt, 
 as hour after hour they drifted out into the 
 great unknown waters, which no man ever 
 ventured into before. Soon all land faded 
 from their sight, and on, and on, and on they 
 went, not knowing where or how the voyage 
 would end. Columbus alone was filled with 
 hope, feeling quite sure that in time he would 
 reach the never before visited shores of a New 
 World, and would thus be the means of bring- 
 ing the Christian religion to these poor, igno- 
 rant people. On and on they sailed, day after 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 171 
 
 day far beyond the utmost point which 
 sailors had ever before reached. 
 
 Many of the men were filled with a strange 
 dread and begged and pleaded to return home. 
 Still on and on they went, each day taking 
 them further and further from all they had 
 ever known or loved before. Day after day 
 passed, and week after week until two months 
 had elapsed. 
 
 The provisions which they had brought with 
 them were getting scarce, and the men now 
 dreaded starvation. They grew angry with 
 Columbus, and threatened to take his life if he 
 did not command the ships to be turned back 
 towards Spain, but his patience did not give 
 out, nor was his faith one whit the less. He 
 cheered the hearts of the men as best he could. 
 Often telling them droll, funny stories to dis- 
 tract their thoughts from the terrible dread 
 which now filled all minds. 
 
 He promised a rich reward to the first man 
 who should discover land ahead. This some- 
 what renewed their courage, and day and night 
 watches were set and the western horizon 
 before them was scanned at all hours. Time 
 and again they thought they saw land ahead, 
 only to find they had mistaken a cloud upon 
 the horizon for the longed-for shore. Flocks 
 
172 Iff STORY-LAND. 
 
 of birds flying westward began to be seen. 
 This gave some ground for hope. For surely 
 the birds must be flying toward some land 
 where they could find food, and trees in which 
 to build their nests. Still fear was great in 
 the hearts of all, and Columbus knew that he 
 could not keep the men much longer in sus- 
 pense, and that if land did not appear soon 
 they would compel him to turn around and 
 retrace his steps whether he wished to or not. 
 
 Then he thought of all the benighted hea- 
 then who had never heard of God's message 
 of love to man through Christ, and he prayed 
 almost incessantly that courage might be 
 given him to go on. Hour after hour he 
 looked across the blue water, day and night, 
 longing for the sight of land. In fact, he 
 watched so incessantly that his eyesight be- 
 came injured and he could scarcely see at all. 
 
 At last one night as he sat upon the deck 
 of the ship he was quite sure that a faint 
 light glimmered for a few moments in the 
 distant darkness ahead. Where there is a 
 light there must be land, he thought. Still 
 he was not sure, as his eyesight had become 
 so dim. So he called one of the more faith- 
 ful sailors to him and asked him what he 
 saw. The sailor exclaimed: 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 173 
 
 "A light, alight! " 
 
 Another sailor was called, but by this time 
 the light had disappeared and the sailor saw 
 nothing, and Columbus' hopes again sank. 
 Still he felt they must be nearing land. 
 About 2 o'clock that night the commander 
 of one of the other boats started the cry: 
 
 " Land! land ahead !" 
 
 You can well imagine how the shout was 
 taken up, and how the sailors, one and all, 
 rushed to the edge of their ships, leaning far 
 over, no doubt, and straining their eyes for 
 the almost unhoped-for sight. 
 
 Early the next morning some one of the 
 sailors picked up a branch of a strange tree, 
 lodged in the midst of which was a tiny 
 bird's nest. This was sure evidence that 
 they were indeed near land, for branches of 
 trees do not grow in water. 
 
 Little by little the land came in sight. 
 First it looked like a dim ghost of a shore, 
 but gradually it grew distinct and clear. 
 About noon the next day the keel of Colum- 
 bus' boat ground upon the sand of the newly 
 discovered country. No white man had ever 
 before set eyes upon it. No ship had ever 
 before touched this coast. 
 
 At last after a long life of working and 
 
174 /# STORY-LAND. 
 
 studying, of hoping and planning, of trying 
 and failing, and trying yet again, he had 
 realized his dream. 
 
 The great mystery of the ocean was re- 
 vealed, and Columbus had achieved a glory 
 which would last as long as the world lasted. 
 He had given a new world to mankind! He 
 had reached the far distant country across 
 the ocean, which scarcely any of his coun- 
 trymen had even believed to have any exist- 
 ence. He now knew that the whole round 
 world could in time have the Christian reli- 
 gion. 
 
 He sprang upon the shore, and dropping on 
 his knees he first stooped and kissed the 
 ground, and then he offered a fervent prayer 
 of thanks to God. 
 
 A learned attorney who had come with him 
 across the water next planted the flag of Spain 
 upon the unknown land, and claimed the newly 
 discovered country in the name of King Fer- 
 dinand and Queen Isabella of Spain. 
 
 Wonderful, wonderful indeed were the things 
 which Columbus and the sailors now saw ! 
 Strange naked men and women of a copper, 
 or bronze color, strange new birds with gor- 
 geous tails that glittered like gems such as 
 they had never seen before; beautiful and un- 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. J75 
 
 known fruits and flowers met their gaze on 
 every side. 
 
 The savages were kind and gentle and 
 brought them food and water. They had 
 little else to offer as they had no houses, nor 
 streets, nor carriages, nor cars, nor conve- 
 niences of any kind. Do you know, my 
 dear children, that this strange, wild, savage 
 country which Columbus had traveled so far 
 and so long to discover was our country, 
 America? 
 
 But it was not long until after Columbus 
 had gone back to Europe and told the people 
 there of the wonderful things which he had 
 seen in this far, far away land that ship-loads 
 of white people, who were educated and who 
 had been taught to love God and to keep his 
 commandments, came over and settled in this 
 wild, new country. They plowed the land and 
 planted seed ; they built houses for them- 
 selves, their wives and little ones, and in time 
 they made school-houses for the children, and 
 churches in which to worship God. Long and 
 hard was the struggle which these first white 
 men had to make in this strange, new country. 
 
 Year after year more and more white men 
 came. These new settlers prospered, and new 
 towns were built, and roads were made from 
 
176 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 one town to another, and stores and manufac- 
 tories began to be seen. 
 
 At last the little handful of people had 
 grown so strong that they established a gov- 
 ernment of their own, which welcomed all 
 newcomers, providing they were law-abiding 
 citizens. The poor and oppressed, the per- 
 secuted and discouraged in other lands came 
 to this new shore, where they found wealth 
 if they were willing to work for it. 
 
 I-lere they need no longer fear the persecu- 
 tions from which they had suffered. Here 
 they gained new hope and became honored 
 and respected citizens. 
 
 Little by little the small country grew 
 into a great nation, the greatest on earth, 
 because it is the freest, and each citizen in it 
 has his rights respected. But for the courage 
 and determination and self-sacrifice of Colum- 
 bus this great new world might have re- 
 mained for hundreds of years unknown to 
 men. 
 
 Four hundred years afterwards the children 
 of the children's children of these early set- 
 tlers, had a grand celebration in honor of the 
 brave old man, Christopher Columbus, whom 
 the people of his day called crazy, and all the 
 nations of the earth were invited to bring 
 
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS. 177 
 
 their most beautiful, their richest and rarest 
 products to this celebration, in order that not 
 we of America alone, but the whole world 
 might celebrate the wisdom and the courage of 
 the great Columbus , " the finder of Amer- 
 ica." 
 
 In the rejoicing and in the celebration the 
 nations did not forget the good Queen Isa- 
 bella, who was willing to give up her most 
 precious jewels in order that she might help 
 Columbus in his voyage of discovery. 
 
 12 
 
A STOET OF DECORATION DAY 
 FOR THE LITTLE CHILDREN 
 OF TO-DAY. 
 
 I want you to listen to a sad, sweet story 
 to-day, and yet one that ought to make you 
 glad, glad that such men have lived as those 
 of whom I am going to tell you. It all hap- 
 pened a good many years ago, in fact so long 
 ago that your fathers and mothers were little 
 boys and girls in kilts and pinafores, some of 
 them mere babies in long clothes. 
 
 One bright Sunday morning in April the 
 telegraph wires could be heard repeating the 
 same things all over the land, ' Tic, tic; tictic ; 
 t-i-c; tic, tictic; tic, t-i-c, tic; t-i-c; 
 tic, t-i-c; t-i-c, t-i-c, tic," they called 
 out, and the drowsy telegraph operators sat 
 up in their chairs as if startled by the words 
 the wires were saying. 
 
 "Tic, t-i-c, tic; tictic; tic, tictic; tic; 
 t-i-c, tictic; tic, tic; t-i-c, tic," con- 
 tinued the wires and the faces of the telegraph 
 operators grew pale. Any looker-on could 
 (178) 
 
A STORY OF DECORATION DAY. 179 
 
 have seen that something dreadful was being 
 told by the wires. 
 
 "Tic, t-i-c, tic; tictic; tic, tictic; tic; 
 t-i-c, tictic; tic, tic; t-i-c, tic," again 
 repeated the wires. There was no mistaking 
 the message this time. Alas, alas, it was true ! 
 The terrible news was true I Even the bravest 
 among the operators trembled. 
 
 Then came the rapid writing out of the 
 fearful words that the slender wires had ut- 
 tered, the hurrying to and fro; and messenger 
 boys were seen flying to the great newspaper 
 offices, and the homes of the mayors of the 
 cities, and to the churches where already the 
 people were beginning to assemble. For the 
 deep-toned Sabbath church bells high up in the 
 steeples had been ringing out their welcome to 
 all, even the strangers in their midst " Biin i 
 Baum ! Birn!" they sang, which eveybody 
 knew meant, " Come to church, dear people ! 
 Cornel Cornel Come!" And the people 
 strolled leisurely along toward the churches, 
 fathers and mothers and little ones, and even 
 grandfathers and grandmothers. It was such 
 a bright, pleasant day that it seemed a joy to 
 go to the house of God and thank Him for all 
 His love and care. So one family after another 
 filed into their pews while the organist played 
 
180 IN STOUT-LAND. 
 
 such soft, sweet music that everybody felt 
 soothed and quieted by it. 
 
 Little did they dream of the awful words 
 which the telegraph wires were at that very 
 moment calling out with their "Tic, t-i-c, 
 tic; t-i-c; tic, t-i-c; t - i- c, t- i - c, tic ; 
 Tic, t-i-c, tic, tictic, tic, tictic ; tic ; t-i-c ; 
 tictic." 
 
 The clergymen came in and took their places 
 in the pulpits. In each church the organ 
 ceased its wordless song of praise. The con- 
 gregation bowed and silently joined with all 
 their hearts in the petitions which the clergy- 
 man was offering to the dear Lord, Father of 
 all mankind, Ruler of heaven and earth. 
 Some of them softly whispered " Amen " as 
 he asked protection for their homes and their 
 beloved country. Did they know anything 
 about the danger which even then hung over 
 them? Perhaps they did. 
 
 In many of the churches the prayer was 
 over, the morning hymn had been sung, when 
 a stir and bustle at the door might have been 
 noticed, as the messenger boys, excited and 
 out of breath, handed their yellow envelopes 
 to the ushers who stood near the door ready 
 to show the late comers to unoccupied seats. 
 First one and then the other ushers read the 
 
A STOEY OF DECORATION DAY. 181 
 
 message, and from some one of them escaped 
 in a hushed whisper, the words, " Oh God I 
 Has it come to this ! " 
 
 And all looked white and awe-struck. The 
 head usher hurried tremblingly down the 
 aisle, and without waiting for the clergy 
 man to finish reading the announcements of 
 the week, laid the telegram upon the pulpit 
 desk. 
 
 The clergyman, somewhat surprised at such 
 an interruption, glanced at the paper, stopped, 
 gasped, picked it up, and re-read the words 
 written upon it, as though he could not believe 
 his own eyes. Then he advanced a step for- 
 ward, holding on to the desk, as if he had 
 been struck a blow by some unseen hand. 
 The congregation knew that something terrible 
 had happened, and their hearts seemed to stop 
 beating as they leaned forward to catch his 
 words. 
 
 " My people," said he in a slow, deliberate 
 tone, as if it were an effort to steady his voice, 
 " I hold in my hand a message from the Pres- 
 ident of the United States." Then his eyes 
 dropped to the paper which he still held, and 
 now his voice rang out clear and loud as he read, 
 " Our Flag has been fired upon! Seventy- 
 
182 J2V STOflY-LAND. 
 
 five thousand troops wanted at once. Abraham 
 Lincoln." 
 
 ********* 
 
 I could not make you understand all that 
 took place the next week or two any more 
 than the little children who heard what the 
 telegram said, understood it. Men came home, 
 hurried and excited, to hunt up law papers, or 
 to straighten out deeds, saying in constrained 
 tones to the pale-faced women, " I will try to 
 leave all business matters straight before I go." 
 There was solemn consultations between hus- 
 bands and wives, which usually ended in the 
 father's going out, stern-faced and silent, and 
 the mother, dry-eyed but with quivering lips, 
 seeking her own room, locking herself in for 
 an hour, then coming out to the wondering 
 children with a quiet face, but with eyes that 
 showed she had been weeping. There were 
 gatherings in the town halls and in the churches 
 and school houses all over the land. The 
 newspapers were read hurriedly and anxi- 
 ously. 
 
 And when little Robert looked up earnestly 
 into his Grandmamma's face and asked, 
 " Why does Mamma not eat her breakfast? " 
 Grandmamma replied, " Your Papa is going 
 
A STOBY OF DECORATION DAY. 183 
 
 away, my dear;" and when little Robert per- 
 sisted, by saying, " But Papa goes to New 
 York every year, and Mamma does not sit 
 and stare out of the window, and forget to eat 
 her breakfast. " Then Mamma would turn 
 solemnly around and say, " Robert, my boy, 
 Papa is going to the war, and may never come 
 back to us. But you and I must be brave 
 about it, and help him get ready." And if 
 Robert answered, ' Why is he going to the 
 war? Why does he not stay at home with us? 
 Doesn't he love us any more? " then Mamma 
 would draw her boy to her and putting her 
 arms around him, and looking into his eyes, 
 she would say, " Yes, my darling, he loves us, 
 but he must go. Our country needs him, and 
 you and I must be proud that he is ready to do 
 his duty." Then Robert would go away to his 
 play, wondering what it all meant, just as you 
 would have wondered if you had been there. 
 
 Soon the Papas and Uncles, and even some 
 of the Grandfathers, put on soldiers' uniforms, 
 and drilled in the streets with guns over their 
 shoulders, and bands of music played military 
 music, and the drums beat, and crowds of peo- 
 ple collected on the street corners, and there 
 were more speeches, and more flags, and ban- 
 ners, and stir, and excitement. And nothing 
 
184 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 else was talked of but the war, the war, the 
 terrible war. 
 
 Then came the marching away of the sol- 
 diers to the railway stations, and then the 
 farewells and cheers and waving of handker- 
 chiefs and the playing of patriotic airs by the 
 bands of music, and much more confusion and 
 excitement and good-bye kisses and tears than 
 I could tell you of. 
 ######### 
 
 Then came the long, long days of waiting 
 and praying in the homes to which fathers and 
 brothers no longer came, and silent watching 
 for letters, and anxious opening of the news- 
 papers, and oftentimes the little children felt 
 their Mamma's tears drop on their faces as 
 she kissed them good-night, their dear 
 Mamma who so often had sung them to sleep 
 with her gay, happy songs, what did it all 
 mean? They could not tell. 
 
 And all this time the fathers, brave men as 
 they were, had been marching down to the 
 war. Oftentimes they slept on the hard 
 ground with only their army blankets wrapped 
 around them, and the stars to keep watch over 
 them, and many a day they had nothing to eat 
 but dry bread and black coffee, because they 
 had not time to cook more, and sometimes 
 
A STORY OF DECORATION DAY. 185 
 
 they had no breakfast at all because they must 
 be up by day-break and march on, even if the 
 rain poured down, as it sometimes did, wetting 
 them through and through. What were such 
 hardships when their country was in danger? 
 
 Then came the terrible, terrible battles, 
 more awful than anything you ever dreamed 
 of. Men were shot down by the thousands, 
 and many who did not lose their lives had 
 a leg shot off, or an arm so crushed that it 
 had to be cut off. Still they bravely strug- 
 gled on. It was for their beloved country 
 they were fighting, and for it they must be 
 willing to suffer, or to die. 
 
 Then a hundred thousand more soldiers 
 were called for, and then another hundred 
 thousand, and still the bloody war continued. 
 For four long years it lasted, and the whole 
 world looked on, amazed at such courage and 
 endurance. 
 ******** 
 
 Then the men who had not been killed, or 
 who had not died of their sufferings came 
 marching home again, many, alas, on crutches, 
 and many who knew that they were disabled for 
 life. But they had saved their country! And 
 that was reward enough for their heroic hearts. 
 Though many a widow turned her sad face 
 
186 IAT STORY-LAND. 
 
 away when the crowd welcomed the returning 
 soldiers, for she knew that her loved one was 
 not with them, and many little children learned 
 in time that their dear fathers would never 
 return to them. 
 
 War is such a terrible thing that it makes 
 one's heart ache to think of it. 
 
 Then by and by the people said, " our chil- 
 dren must grow up loving and honoring the 
 heroic men who gave their lives for their 
 country." So in villages and towns, and cities, 
 monuments were built in honor of the men who 
 died fighting for their country. And one day 
 each year was set apart to keep fresh and 
 green the memory of the brave soldiers, and 
 it has been named " DECORATION DAY," 
 because on this day all the children, all over 
 the land, are permitted to go to the graves of 
 the dead soldiers and place flowers upon them. 
 
OLD JOHNNY APPLESEED. 
 
 THE RAGGED OLD HERO. 
 
 A TRUE STORY. 
 
 Many years ago on the sparsely settled prairies 
 of America there lived an old man who was 
 known by the queer name of "Johnny Apple- 
 seed." His wife had died long ago and his 
 children had grown up and scattered to the 
 corners of the earth. He had not even a home 
 that he could call his own, but wandered about 
 from place to place, with only few friends and 
 little or no money. His face was wrinkled, his 
 hair was thin and gray, and his shoulders 
 stooped. His clothes were old and ragged and 
 his hat was old and shabby. Yet inside of him 
 was a heart that was brave and true, and he 
 felt that even he, old and poor as he was, could 
 be of use in the world, because he loved his 
 fellow-men, and love always finds something 
 to do. 
 
 As he trudged along the lonely road from 
 town to town, or made for himself a path 
 through the unbroken forest, he often thought 
 of the good God, and of how all men were chil- 
 
188 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 dren of the One Father. Sometimes he would 
 burst out singing the words of a song which he 
 had learned when he was a young man. 
 11 Millions loving, I embrace you, 
 All the world this kiss I send! 
 Brothers, o'er yon starry tent 
 Dwells a God whose love is true!" 
 These words, by the way, are a part of a great 
 poem you may some day read. And they once 
 so stirred the heart of a great musician that he 
 set them to the finest music the world has ever 
 heard. And now the great thought of a loving 
 God and the great music of a loving man com- 
 forted the lonely traveller. 
 
 The old man wandered about from village to 
 village, which in those days were scattered far 
 apart, with miles and miles of prairie land 
 stretching between them, and sometimes wood- 
 land and rivers, too, separated one village from 
 the next. At night he usually earned his crust 
 of bread and lodgings by mending the teakettle 
 or wash-boiler of some farmer's wife, or by 
 soldering on the handle of her tin cup or the 
 knob to her tea-pot, as he always carried in one 
 of his coat pockets a small charcoal stove and a 
 bit of solder. He always carried under his 
 arm or over his shoulder a green baize bag, and 
 when the mending was done he would often- 
 times draw out of this green bag an old violin 
 
OLD JOHNNY APPLESEED, 189 
 
 and begin to play, and the farmer, as well as his 
 wife and the children, would gather around him 
 and listen to his strange music. 
 
 Sometimes it was gay and sometimes it was 
 sad, but always sweet. Sometimes he sang 
 words that he himself had written, and some- 
 times the songs which had been written by the 
 great masters. But mending broken tinware 
 and playing an old violin were not the only 
 things he did to help the world along. As he 
 wandered from place to place he often noticed 
 how rich the soil was, and he would say to him- 
 self, "Some day this will be a great country 
 with thousands of people living on this land, 
 and though I shall never see them, they may 
 never read my verses or hear my name, still I 
 can help them, and add some things to their 
 lives. 
 
 So whenever a farmer's wife gave him an 
 apple to eat he carefully saved every seed that 
 lay hidden in the heart of the apple, and next 
 day as he trudged along he would stoop down 
 every now and then and plant a few of the seeds 
 and then carefully cover them with the rich 
 black soil of the prairie. Then he would look 
 up reverently to the sky and say, "I can but 
 plant the seed, dear Lord, and Thy clouds may 
 water them, but Thou alone can give the in- 
 crease. Thou only can cause this tiny seed to 
 
190 IN 8TOEY-LAND. 
 
 grow into a tree whose fruit shall feed my fellow 
 men." Then the God-like love that would fill 
 his heart at such a thought would cause his face 
 to look young again and his eyes to shine as an 
 angel's eyes must shine, and oftentimes he would 
 sing in clear rich tones 
 
 "Millions loving, I embrace you, 
 All the world this kiss I send ! 
 Brothers, o'er yon starry tent 
 Dwells a God whose love is true!" 
 And he knew that God dwelt in his heart as 
 well as in the blue sky above. 
 
 When the cold winters came and the ground 
 was frozen too hard for him to plant his apple 
 seeds, he still saved them, and would often have 
 a small bag full of them by the time that spring 
 returned again. And this is how he came to be 
 called "Old Johnny Appleseed." 
 
 Though nobody took very much notice of 
 what he was doing, he still continued each day 
 to plant apple seeds and each evening to play 
 on his violin. 
 
 By-and-by his step grew slower and his 
 shoulders drooped lower until at last his soul, 
 which had always been strong and beautiful, 
 passed out of his worn old body into the life 
 beyond, and the cast-off body was buried by 
 some villagers who felt kindly towards the old 
 man, but who never dreamed that he had ever 
 
OLD JOHNNY APPLESEED. 191 
 
 done any real service for them or their children. 
 And soon his very name was forgotten. But 
 the tiny apple seeds took root and began to 
 grow, and each summer the young saplings grew 
 taller and each winter they grew stronger, until 
 at last they were young trees, and then they 
 were old enough to bear apples. As people 
 moved from the east out to the wild western 
 prairies they naturally enough selected sites for 
 building their homes near the fruitful apple 
 trees, and in the spring time the young men 
 gathered the blossoms for the young maidens to 
 wear in their hair, and in the autumn the 
 fathers gathered the ripe red and yellow apples 
 to store away in their cellars for winter use, 
 and the mothers made apple sauce and apple 
 pies and apple dumplings of them, and all the 
 year round the little children played under the 
 shade of the apple trees, but none of them ever 
 once thought of the old man who had planted 
 for people he did not know, and who could 
 never even thank him for his loving services. 
 
 Each apple that ripened bore in its heart a 
 number of new seeds, some of which were 
 planted and grew into fine orchards from which 
 were gathered many barrels of apples. These 
 were shipped farther west, until the Rocky 
 Mountains were reached. In the centre of each 
 apple shipped were more seeds, from which 
 
192 IN STORY-LAND. 
 
 grew more apple trees, which bore the same kind 
 of apples that the wrinkled old man in the 
 shabby old clothes had planted long years 
 before. So that many thousands of people 
 have already been benefited by what the poor 
 old man in the shabby old coat did, and 
 thousands yet to come will enjoy the fruits of 
 his labor. 
 
 It is true he never wore the armour of a 
 great knight and never held the title of a great 
 general. He never discovered a new world, nor 
 helped his favorite to sit on the throne of a 
 king. But perhaps after all, though ragged and 
 poor, he was a hero ; because in his heart he 
 really and truly sang, as well as with his lips. 
 " Millions loving, I embrace you, 
 All the world this kiss I send ! 
 Brothers, o'er yon starry tent 
 Dwells a God whose love is true ! ' ' 
 For the greatest of all victories is to learn to 
 love others even when they do not know it. 
 This is to be God-like, and to be God-like is to 
 be the greatest of heroes. 
 
BOOKS BY ELIZABETH HARRISON 
 
 FOR SALE BY 
 
 CENTRAL PUBLISHING COMPANY 
 
 125 North Wabash Avenue CHICAGO, III. 
 
 A STUDY OF CHILD-NATURE 
 
 The fact that this book has 
 reached its forty-second edition 
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 translated into six foreign lan- 
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 Price, $1.00 Net. Postage, 7 Cents 
 
 MISUNDERSTOOD CHILDREN 
 
 Is a collection of the childish 
 comedies and tragedies in tho 
 everyday life about us. 
 
 As a Kepler or a Newton 
 grasps the meaning of the mo- 
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 These chapters are full of 
 useful hints for mothers and 
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 is for the little children of to- 
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 Lutt Price, $1.25. Retail Price, 
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 TWO CHILDREN OF THE 
 FOOTHILLS 
 
 Has brought to us many let- 
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 two little children. The peru- 
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 mother in the training and de- 
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 if they must be deprived of 
 the kindergarten. Fifth edi- 
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 List Price, $1.25. Retail Price, 
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 CHRISTMAS TIDE 
 
 Will help mothers to give 
 their children the right Christ- 
 mas spirit and also help them 
 in the wise selection of pres- 
 ents for children. In addition 
 to Miss Harrison's Christmas 
 talks and stories, it contains 
 a reprint of Charles Dickens' 
 beautiful Christmas Carol. 
 Second edition. 
 Price, $1.00 Net. Postage, 7 Cents 
 
 SOME SILENT TEACHERS 
 
 Is a collection of lectures on 
 the deeper sources of culture 
 and their influence upon the 
 teachers of little children. 
 It is a book written with in- 
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 help and many resources lie 
 in the commonplace things 
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 List Price, $1.25. Retail Price, 
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 THE VISION OF DANTE 
 
 Is a unique literary production 
 in that it brings down to the 
 comprehension of a little child 
 in the form of a story one of 
 the world's greatest poems. 
 Second edition. 
 
 List Price, $2.00 and $1.50 
 
 Retail Price, $1.50 and $1.00 
 
 Postage, 12 Cents 
 
 THE KINDERGARTEN BUILD. 
 ING GIFTS 
 
 Is a valuable book for kinder- 
 gartners, primary grade teach- 
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 more than two hundred illus- 
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 gestions as to the use of other 
 materials along with the kin- 
 dergarten gifts. Third edition. 
 List Price, $1.25. Retail Price, 
 $1.00. Postage, 9 Cento 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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