g the borders as best it could.

About the time the white clematis had come back to hide the ruin of the
brown birches, a young man came and camped with his wife and child in
the meadow. They were looking for a place to make a home.

"What a charming place!" said the young wife; "just the right distance
from town, and a stream all to ourselves. And look, there are fruit
trees already planted. Do let us decide to stay!"

Then she took off the child's shoes and stockings to let it play in
the stream. The water curled all about the bare feet and gurgled
delightedly.

"Ah, do stay," begged the happy water. "I can be such a help to you, for
I know how a garden should be irrigated in the best manner."

The child laughed, and stamped the water up to his bare knees. The young
wife watched anxiously while her husband walked up and down the stream
border and examined the fruit trees.

"It is a delightful place," he said, "and the soil is rich, but I am
afraid the water cannot be depended upon. There are signs of a great
drought within the last two or three years. Look, there is a clump of
birches in the very path of the stream, but all dead; and the largest
limbs of the fruit trees have died. In this country one must be able
to make sure of the water-supply. I suppose the people who planted them
must have abandoned the place when the stream went dry. We must go on
farther."

So they took their goods and the child and went on farther.

"Ah, well," said the stream, "that is what is to be expected when has a
reputation for neglecting one's duty. But I wish they had stayed. That
baby and I understood each other."

It had made up its mind not to run away again, though it could not be
expected to be quite cheerful after all that had happened. If you go to
the Canyon of Pinon Pines you will notice that the stream, where it goes
brokenly about the meadow, has a mournful sound.

THE ELVES

AN IROQUOIS LEGEND

BY HARRIET MAXWELL CONVERSE (ADAPTED)

The little Elves of Darkness, so says the old Iroquois grandmother, were
wise and mysterious. They dwelt under the earth, where were deep forests
and broad plains. There they kept captive all the evil things that
wished to injure human beings,--the venomous reptiles, the wicked
spiders, and the fearful monsters. Sometimes one of these evil creatures
escaped and rushed upward to the bright, pure air, and spread its
poisonous breath over the living things of the upper-world.