for an honest man a bow from a titled nobody, and so
on; but she had something extraordinary to relate, after all.

"I must tell you," said she, "that to-day is my birthday; and in
honor of it I have been intrusted with a pair of goloshes, to
introduce amongst mankind. These goloshes have the property of
making every one who puts them on imagine himself in any place he
wishes, or that he exists at any period. Every wish is fulfilled at
the moment it is expressed, so that for once mankind have the chance
of being happy."

"No," replied Care; "you may depend upon it that whoever puts on
those goloshes will be very unhappy, and bless the moment in which
he can get rid of them."

"What are you thinking of?" replied the other. "Now see; I will
place them by the door; some one will take them instead of his own,
and he will be the happy man."

This was the end of their conversation.

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COUNSELLOR

It was late when Counsellor Knapp, lost in thought about the times
of King Hans, desired to return home; and fate so ordered it that he
put on the goloshes of Fortune instead of his own, and walked out into
the East Street. Through the magic power of the goloshes, he was at
once carried back three hundred years, to the times of King Hans,
for which he had been longing when he put them on. Therefore he
immediately set his foot into the mud and mire of the street, which in
those days possessed no pavement.

"Why, this is horrible; how dreadfully dirty it is!" said the
counsellor; "and the whole pavement has vanished, and the lamps are all
out."

The moon had not yet risen high enough to penetrate the thick
foggy air, and all the objects around him were confused together in
the darkness. At the nearest corner, a lamp hung before a picture of
the Madonna; but the light it gave was almost useless, for he only
perceived it when he came quite close and his eyes fell on the painted
figures of the Mother and Child.

"That is most likely a museum of art," thought he, "and they
have forgotten to take down the sign."

Two men, in the dress of olden times, passed by him.

"What odd figures!" thought he; "they must be returning from
some masquerade."

Suddenly he heard the sound of a drum and fifes, and then a
blazing light from torches shone upon him. The counsellor stared
with astonishment as he beheld a most strange procession pass before
him. First came a whole troop of drummers, beating their drums very