o the pocket of a jacket, together
with other full pods.

"Now we shall soon be let out," said one, and that was just what they
all wanted.

"I should like to know which of us will travel farthest," said the
smallest of the five; "and we shall soon see."

"What is to happen will happen," said the largest pea.

"Crack!" went the shell, and the five peas rolled out into the bright
sunshine. There they lay in a child's hand. A little boy was holding
them tightly. He said they were fine peas for his pea-shooter, and
immediately he put one in and shot it out.

"Now I am flying out into the wide world," said the pea. "Catch me if
you can." And he was gone in a moment.

"I intend to fly straight to the sun," said the second. "That is a shell
that will suit me exactly, for it lets itself be seen." And away he
went.

"We will go to sleep wherever we find ourselves," said the next two; "we
shall still be rolling onwards." And they did fall to the floor and roll
about, but they got into the pea-shooter for all that. "We will go
farthest of any," said they.

"What is to happen will happen," exclaimed the last one, as he was shot
out of the pea-shooter. Up he flew against an old board under a garret
window and fell into a little crevice which was almost filled with moss
and soft earth. The moss closed itself about him, and there he lay--a
captive indeed, but not unnoticed by God.

"What is to happen will happen," said he to himself.

Within the little garret lived a poor woman, who went out to clean
stoves, chop wood into small pieces, and do other hard work, for she was
both strong and industrious. Yet she remained always poor, and at home
in the garret lay her only daughter, not quite grown up and very
delicate and weak. For a whole year she had kept her bed, and it seemed
as if she could neither die nor get well.

"She is going to her little sister," said the woman. "I had only the two
children, and it was not an easy thing to support them; but the good God
provided for one of them by taking her home to himself. The other was
left to me, but I suppose they are not to be separated, and my sick girl
will soon go to her sister in heaven."

All day long the sick girl lay quietly and patiently, while her mother
went out to earn money.

Spring came, and early one morning the sun shone through the little
window and threw his rays mildly and pleasantly over the floor of the
room. Just as the mother was going to her work,