light gleamed from the forester's house. It was lit up like a
star, and threw its long ray among the trees. A song sounded forth
out of the house! Beautiful children played there round the old
grandfather. He sat with the Bible on his knee, and read of the
Creator and of a better world, and spoke of spring that would return,
of the forest that would array itself in fresh green, of the roses
that would bloom, the nightingale that would sing, and of the
beautiful that would reign in its glory again.

But the rose king heard it not, for he sat in the cold, damp weather,
and sighed, "Gone! gone!" And the pigs were the lords of the forest,
and the old mother sow looked proudly at her little porker with the
twist in his tail. "There is always somebody who has a soul for the
beautiful!" she said.

ANNE LISBETH.

Anne Lisbeth had a colour like milk and blood; young, fresh, and
merry, she looked beautiful, with gleaming white teeth and clear eyes;
her footstep was light in the dance, and her mind was lighter still.
And what came of it all? Her son was an ugly brat! Yes, he was not
pretty; so he was put out to be nursed by the labourer's wife. Anne
Lisbeth was taken into the count's castle, and sat there in the
splendid room arrayed in silks and velvets; not a breath of wind might
blow upon her, and no one was allowed to speak a harsh word to her.
No, that might not be; for she was nurse to the count's child, which
was delicate and fair as a prince, and beautiful as an angel; and how
she loved this child! Her own boy was provided for at the labourer's,
where the mouth boiled over more frequently than the pot, and where,
in general, no one was at home to take care of the child. Then he
would cry; but what nobody knows, that nobody cares for, and he would
cry till he was tired, and then he fell asleep; and in sleep one feels
neither hunger nor thirst. A capital invention is sleep.

With years, just as weeds shoot up, Anne Lisbeth's child grew, but yet
they said his growth was stunted; but he had quite become a member of
the family in which he dwelt; they had received money to keep him.
Anne Lisbeth was rid of him for good. She had become a town lady, and
had a comfortable home of her own; and out of doors she wore a bonnet,
when she went out for a walk; but she never walked out to see the
labourer--that was too far from the town; and indeed she had nothing
to go for; the boy belonged to the labouring people, and she sai