p over at the old house; and snow covered the carved heads over
the windows. The old house looked very cold, but now there was no one
at home in it. And when the spring came they pulled the house down.

After a while a fine house was built in its place with large windows
and smooth white walls. Before it, where part of the old house had
stood, a garden was laid out and there were grape vines running along
the walks. Birds built their nests in the vines and chattered away to
each other, but not about the old house, for they could not remember
it, so many years had passed. So many years had gone by that the
little boy had grown up to a whole man. And he had just been married
and had brought his wife to live in the house here, where the garden
was. She had brought a wild flower with her that she found very pretty
and he stood by her as she planted it in the garden and pressed the
earth around it with her fingers.

Oh, what was that? She had pricked her finger. There sat something
pointed, sticking straight out of the soft mould.

It was--yes, guess--it was the toy soldier who had tumbled and turned
about among the timber and the rubbish, and had lain for many years in
the ground.

The young wife wiped the dirt off the soldier, first with a green
leaf, and then with her fine handkerchief. It was just as if the toy
soldier had awakened from a dream. Then the young man told his wife
about the old house and the old man and the toy soldier that he had
sent over because the old man had been so lonely.

"Very, very lonely!" said the toy soldier, "but it is delightful not
to be forgotten!"

THE LITTLE BOY WHO WANTED A CASTLE

There was once a boy who thought a great deal about castles. He had a
very beautiful picture book with coloured pictures of castles that
showed how large and different and fine they were, and, presently,
after thinking a long time about it, the boy decided that a castle
was where he would like, most of all, to live.

So very early one morning, when it was a sunny day and pleasant enough
for any sort of an adventure, the boy made up his mind that he would
go out for a little journey and try to find himself a castle.

He told his mother about it, for he always told her everything, and
she smiled down into his face as she buttoned his coat.

"Are you sure that you can find a castle?" she asked.

"Oh, yes indeed, very sure," the boy answered. "And if I can't I'll
ask some one on the road and