not too near the stove-pipe.
After one day bring it nearer the heat. Then about the second day, put
it in the oven. Last of all, and this is the hardest part to do, let
the Guide put the bone-dry pot right into the fire, deep down into the
red coals at night, and leave it there till next day. In the morning
when the fire is dead, the pot should be carefully lifted out, and, if
all is well, it will be of hard ringing red terra cotta.

The final firing is always the hardest thing to do, because the pots are
so easily cracked. If they be drawn out of the fire while they are yet
hot, the sudden touch of cold air usually breaks them into pieces.

Now remember, O Guide! A pot is made of the earth, and holds the things
that come out of the earth to make life, that feed us and keep us. So on
it, you should draw the symbols that stand for these things. At the foot
of preceding page you see some of them.

TALE 84

Snowflakes, the Sixfold Gems of Snowroba

[Illustration: Snowflakes]

You have heard of the lovely Snowroba, white calm beautiful Snowroba,
the daughter of King Jackfrost the Winter King, whose sad history was
told in the first Tale. You remember how her robe was trimmed with white
lace and crystal gems, each gem with six points and six facets and six
angles, for that is one of the strange laws of the white Kingdom, the
sixfold rule of gems. I did not give a good portrait of the White
Princess, but I can show you how to make the Jewels which sparkled on
her robe.

Take a square of thin white paper three or four inches wide (a). Fold it
across (b), and again, until it is a square (c), half as wide as "a."
Mark on it the lines as in "d," and fold it in three equal parts as in
"e." Now with pencil draw the heavy black lines as in "f, g, h." Cut
along these lines with scissors, open out the central piece, and you
have your snow-gems as on facing page.

You can see for yourself that these are true to the gem-law of the White
Kingdom, if, when next the snow comes down, you look for the biggest
flakes as they lie on some dark surface. You will find many patterns all
of them beautiful, and all of them fashioned in accordance with the law.

Are You Alive?

Little boy or girl, are you all alive? Just as alive as an Indian? Can
you see like a hawk, feel like a blind man, hear like an owl? Are you
quick as a cat? You do not know! Well, let us find out in the next eight
tales. In these tests 100 is kept in view as a