'
children."
At that moment the baby's sister came to the princess and said, "Shall I
go and find thee a nurse from the Hebrew women, so that she may nurse
the child for thee?" Not a word did she say about whose child it was,
but perhaps the princess guessed; I don't know. At all events, she told
the little girl to go.
So the maiden went, and brought her mother!
Then the king's daughter said to the baby's mother, "Take this child
away and nurse it for me, and I will give thee wages."
Was not that a strange thing? And can you think how happy the baby's
mother was? For now the baby would be known only as the princess's
adopted child, and would be safe.
And it was so. The mother kept him until he was old enough to be taken
to the princess's palace. Then he was brought and given to the king's
daughter, and he became her son. And she named him Moses.
But the strangest part of the whole story is, that when Moses grew to be
a man he became so strong and wise that it was he who at last saved his
people from the king and rescued them from the Egyptians. The one child
saved by the king's own daughter was the very one the king would most
have wanted to kill, if he had known.
THE TEN FAIRIES[22]
Once upon a time there was a dear little girl, whose name was Elsa.
Elsa's father and mother worked very hard and became rich. But they
loved Elsa so much that they did not like her to do any work; very
foolishly, they let her play all the time. So when Elsa grew up, she did
not know how to do anything; she could not make bread, she could not
sweep a room, she could not sew a seam; she could only laugh and sing.
But she was so sweet and merry that everybody loved her. And by and by,
she married one of the people who loved her, and had a house of her own
to take care of.
Then, then, my dears, came hard times for Elsa! There were so many
things to be done in the house, and she did not know how to do any of
them! And because she had never worked at all it made her very tired
even to try; she was tired before the morning was over, every day. The
maid would come and say, "How shall I do this?" or "How shall I do
that?" and Elsa would have to say, "I don't know." Then the maid would
pretend that she did not know, either; and when she saw her mistress
sitting about doing nothing, she, too, sat about, idle.
Elsa's husband had a hard time of it; he had only poor food to eat, and
it was not ready at the right time, and
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