on. Then the maiden remembered him, threw away the handkerchief, and
started off again in pursuit.

This time the man dropped the mirror and the maiden who of course was a
Vila and had never seen a mirror before picked it up and looked at it
and when she saw the lovely reflection of herself she was so amazed that
she kept on looking and looking. She was still looking in it and still
admiring her own beauty when the man reached the third hill beyond which
the maiden couldn't follow him.

So the poor man got home with the hair safely wound about his finger.

"It must be of great value," he thought to himself. "I'll take it to the
city and offer it for sale there."

So the next day he went to the city and went about offering his
wonderful hair to the merchants.

"What's so wonderful about it?" they asked him.

"I don't know, but I do know it's of great value," he told them.

"Well," said one of them, "I'll give you one golden ducat for it."

He was a shrewd buyer and the others hearing his bid of one golden ducat
decided that he must know that the hair was of much greater value. So
they began to outbid him until the price offered the poor man reached
one hundred golden ducats. But the poor man insisted that this was not
enough.

"One hundred golden ducats not enough for one red hair!" cried the
merchants.

They pretended to be disgusted that any one would refuse such a price
for one red hair, but in reality they were all firmly convinced by this
time that it was a magic hair and probably worth any amount of money in
the world.

The whole city became excited over the wonderful hair for which all the
merchants were bidding and for a time nothing else was talked about. The
matter was reported to the Tsar and at once he said that he himself
would buy the hair for one thousand golden ducats.

One thousand golden ducats! After that there was no danger of the poor
man's many children dying of starvation.

And what do you suppose the Tsar did with the hair? He had it split open
very carefully and inside he found a scroll of great importance to
mankind for on it were written many wonderful secrets of nature.

[Illustration]

THE BEST WISH

[Illustration]

_The Story of Three Brothers and an Angel_

THE BEST WISH

There were once three brothers whose only possession was a pear tree.
They took turns guarding it. That is to say while two of them went to
work the third stayed at home to see that