ardens or little fields between them, could see
the evening sky still better, and heard the sound of the bell much
more distinctly. It was as if the tones came from a church in the still
forest; people looked thitherward, and felt their minds attuned most
solemnly.

A long time passed, and people said to each other--"I wonder if there
is a church out in the wood? The bell has a tone that is wondrous sweet;
let us stroll thither, and examine the matter nearer." And the rich
people drove out, and the poor walked, but the way seemed strangely
long to them; and when they came to a clump of willows which grew on the
skirts of the forest, they sat down, and looked up at the long
branches, and fancied they were now in the depth of the green wood. The
confectioner of the town came out, and set up his booth there; and soon
after came another confectioner, who hung a bell over his stand, as
a sign or ornament, but it had no clapper, and it was tarred over to
preserve it from the rain. When all the people returned home, they said
it had been very romantic, and that it was quite a different sort of
thing to a pic-nic or tea-party. There were three persons who asserted
they had penetrated to the end of the forest, and that they had always
heard the wonderful sounds of the bell, but it had seemed to them as if
it had come from the town. One wrote a whole poem about it, and said the
bell sounded like the voice of a mother to a good dear child, and
that no melody was sweeter than the tones of the bell. The king of the
country was also observant of it, and vowed that he who could discover
whence the sounds proceeded, should have the title of "Universal
Bell-ringer," even if it were not really a bell.

Many persons now went to the wood, for the sake of getting the place,
but one only returned with a sort of explanation; for nobody went far
enough, that one not further than the others. However, he said that
the sound proceeded from a very large owl, in a hollow tree; a sort of
learned owl, that continually knocked its head against the branches. But
whether the sound came from his head or from the hollow tree, that no
one could say with certainty. So now he got the place of "Universal
Bell-ringer," and wrote yearly a short treatise "On the Owl"; but
everybody was just as wise as before.

It was the day of confirmation. The clergyman had spoken so touchingly,
the children who were confirmed had been greatly moved; it was
an eventful day