when a noise was heard among the trees, as if the wind had
suddenly got up, and on all sides beautiful maidens stepped from the
trees into the bright light of the moon. These were the wood-nymphs,
daughters of the earth-mother, who came every night to hold their
dances, in the forest. The young man, watching from his hiding place,
wished he had a hundred eyes in his head, for two were not nearly enough
for the sight before him, the dances lasting till the first streaks of
dawn. Then a silvery veil seemed to be drawn over the ladies, and they
vanished from sight. But the young man remained where he was till the
sun was high in the heavens, and then went home.

He felt that day to be endless, and counted the minutes till night
should come, and he might return to the forest. But when at last he got
there he found neither pavilions nor nymphs, and though he went back
many nights after he never saw them again. Still, he thought about them
night and day, and ceased to care about anything else in the world, and
was sick to the end of his life with longing for that beautiful vision.
And that was the way he learned that the wizard had spoken truly when he
said, 'Blindness is man's highest good.'

(Ehstnische Marchen.)

THE BOYS WITH THE GOLDEN STARS

Once upon a time what happened did happen: and if it had not happened,
you would never have heard this story.

Well, once upon a time there lived an emperor who had half a world all
to himself to rule over, and in this world dwelt an old herd and his
wife and their three daughters, Anna, Stana, and Laptitza.

Anna, the eldest, was so beautiful that when she took the sheep to
pasture they forgot to eat as long as she was walking with them. Stana,
the second, was so beautiful that when she was driving the flock the
wolves protected the sheep. But Laptitza, the youngest, with a skin
as white as the foam on the milk, and with hair as soft as the finest
lamb's wool, was as beautiful as both her sisters put together--as
beautiful as she alone could be.

One summer day, when the rays of the sun were pouring down on the earth,
the three sisters went to the wood on the outskirts of the mountain to
pick strawberries. As they were looking about to find where the largest
berries grew they heard the tramp of horses approaching, so loud that
you would have thought a whole army was riding by. But it was only the
emperor going to hunt with his friends and attendants.

They were all f