ck with careless light hearts to their revels.

As father and son went down the hill together, the old man whistled and
piped like a bird. "Why, why!" he said, "you are a lad of strength and
inches: with you to work and look after me, I can keep on to a merry old
age! Ay, ay, I have had long to wait for it; but wisdom is justified in
her children."

THE MOON-STROKE

In the hollow heart of an old tree a Jackdaw and his wife had made
themselves a nest. As soon as the mother of his eggs had finished
laying, she sat waiting patiently for something to come of it. One by
one five mouths poked out of the shells, demanding to be fed; so for
weeks the happy couple had to be continually in two places at once
searching for food to satisfy them.

Presently the wings of the young ones grew strong; they could begin to
fly about; and the parents found time for a return to pleasuring and
curiosity-hunting. They began gathering in a wise assortment of broken
glass and chips of platter to grace the corners of their dwelling. All
but the youngest Jackdaw were enchanted with their unutterable beauty
and value; they were never tired of quarrelling over the possession and
arrangement of them.

"But what are they for?" asked the youngest, a perverse bird who
grouped himself apart from the rest, and took no share in their daily
squabblings.

The mother-bird said: "They are beautiful, and what God intended for us:
therefore they must be true. We may not see the use of them yet, but no
doubt some day they will come true."

The little Jackdaw said: "Their corners scratch me when I want to go to
sleep; they are far worse than crumbs in the bed. All the other birds do
without them--why should not we?"

"That is what distinguishes us from the other birds!" replied the
Janedaw, and thanked her stars that it was so.

"I wish we could sing!" sighed the littlest young Jackdaw. "Babble,
babble!" replied his mother angrily.

And then, as it was dinner-time, he forgot his grief as they all said
grace, and fell-to.

One evening the old Jackdaw came home very late, carrying something that
burned bright and green, like an evening star; all the nest shone where
he set it down.

"What do you think of that for a discovery?" he said to the Janedaw.

"Think?" she said; "I can't. Some of it looks good to eat; but that
fire-patch at the end would burn one's inside out."

Presently the Jackdaw family settled itself down to sleep; only the