, dear children, be careful of her.
You know she is the light of my eyes to me.'

'Oh, we will take care of her,' cried the girls gaily, and they ran off
to the woods. There they wore wreaths, gathered nosegays, and sang songs
some sad, some merry. And whatever they did Snowflake did too.

When the sun set they lit a fire of dry grass, and placed themselves in
a row, Snowflake being the last of all. 'Now, watch us,' they said, 'and
run just as we do.'

And they all began to sing and to jump one after another across the
fire.

Suddenly, close behind them, they heard a sigh, then a groan. 'Ah!' They
turned hastily and looked at each other. There was nothing. They
looked again. Where was Snowflake? She has hidden herself for fun, they
thought, and searched for her everywhere. 'Snowflake! Snowflake!' But
there was no answer. 'Where can she be? Oh, she must have gone home.'
They returned to the village, but there was no Snowflake.

For days after that they sought her high and low. They examined every
bush and every hedge, but there was no Snowflake. And long after
everyone else had given up hope Ivan and Marie would wander through the
woods crying 'Snowflake, my dove, come back, come back!' And sometimes
they thought they heard a call, but it was never the voice of Snowflake.

And what had become of her? Had a fierce wild beast seized her and
dragged her into his lair in the forest? Had some bird carried her off
across the wide blue sea?

No, no beast had touched her, no bird had borne her away. With the
first breath of flame that swept over her when she ran with her friends
Snowflake had melted away, and a little soft haze floating upwards was
all that remained of her.

I Know What I Have Learned

From the Danish.

There was once a man who had three daughters, and they were all married
to trolls, who lived underground. One day the man thought that he would
pay them a visit, and his wife gave him some dry bread to eat by the
way. After he had walked some distance he grew both tired and hungry, so
he sat down on the east side of a mound and began to eat his dry bread.
The mound then opened, and his youngest daughter came out of it, and
said, 'Why, father! why are you not coming in to see me?'

'Oh,' said he, 'if I had known that you lived here, and had seen any
entrance, I would have come in.'

Then he entered the mound along with her.

The troll came home soon after this, and his wife told him that he