steed, the White Wind. He has not been out all summer; he is full of
strength and fury; he spumes and rages. The air is filled with the foam
from his bridle, and froth from his shoulders, as she rides him, and
spurs him, and rides him. I love to see it, and know that she is filling
the air with strength and with messages. They carry me back to my own
dear homeland. It thrills me with joy to see the whiteness."

But the Yankee boy said: "Why, it's just snowing."

TALE 101

The Fairy Lamps

There was once a little barelegged, brown-limbed boy who spent all his
time in the woods. He loved the woods and all that was in them. He used
to look, not at the flowers, but deep down into them, and not at the
singing bird, but into its eyes, to its little heart; and so he got an
insight better than most others, and he quite gave up collecting birds'
eggs.

But the woods were full of mysteries. He used to hear little bursts of
song, and when he came to the place he could find no bird there. Noises
and movements would just escape him. In the woods he saw strange tracks,
and one day, at length, he saw a wonderful bird making these very
tracks. He had never seen the bird before, and would have thought it a
great rarity had he not seen its tracks everywhere. So he learned that
the woods were full of beautiful creatures that were skillful and quick
to avoid him.

One day, as he passed by a spot for the hundredth time, he found a
bird's nest. It must have been there for long, and yet he had not seen
it; and so he learned how blind he was, and he exclaimed: "Oh, if only I
could see, then I might understand these things! If only I knew! If I
could see but for once, how many there are, and how near! If only every
bird would wear over its nest this evening a little lamp to show me!"

The sun was down now; but all at once there was a soft light on the
path, and in the middle of it the brown boy saw a Little Brown Lady in a
long robe, and in her hand a rod.

She smiled pleasantly and said: "Little boy, I am the Fairy of this
Woods. I have been watching you for long. I like you. You seem to be
different from other boys. Your request shall be granted."

Then she faded away. But at once the whole landscape twinkled over with
wonderful little lamps--long lamps, short lamps, red, blue, and green,
high and low, doubles, singles, and groups; wherever he looked were
lamps--twinkle, twinkle, twinkle, here and everywhere, until the forest
sho