oked as if he needed it,
and I don't believe the people in the village will take it from one who
has served them so long. Often, when in my tree, have I heard the sweet
notes of his pipes. I am going to take the money back to him." She did
not start immediately, because there were so many beautiful things to
look at; but after awhile she went up to the cottage, and, finding Old
Pipes asleep in his chair, she slipped the little bag into his
coat-pocket, and silently sped away.

The next day Old Pipes told his mother that he would go up the mountain
and cut some wood. He had a right to get wood from the mountain, but for
a long time he had been content to pick up the dead branches which lay
about his cottage. To-day, however, he felt so strong and vigorous that
he thought he would go and cut some fuel that would be better than
this. He worked all the morning, and when he came back he did not feel
at all tired, and he had a very good appetite for his dinner.

Now, Old Pipes knew a good deal about Dryads; but there was one thing
which, although he had heard, he had forgotten. This was, that a kiss
from a Dryad made a person ten years younger.

The people of the village knew this, and they were very careful not to
let any child of ten years or younger go into the woods where the Dryads
were supposed to be; for, if they should chance to be kissed by one of
these tree-nymphs, they would be set back so far that they would cease
to exist.

A story was told in the village that a very bad boy of eleven once ran
away into the woods, and had an adventure of this kind; and when his
mother found him he was a little baby of one year old. Taking advantage
of her opportunity, she brought him up more carefully than she had done
before, and he grew to be a very good boy indeed.

Now Old Pipes had been kissed twice by the Dryad, once on each cheek,
and he therefore felt as vigorous and active as when he was a hale man
of fifty. His mother noticed how much work he was doing, and told him
that he need not try in that way to make up for the loss of his piping
wages; for he would only tire himself out, and get sick. But her son
answered that he had not felt so well for years, and that he was quite
able to work.

In the course of the afternoon, Old Pipes, for the first time that day,
put his hand in his coat-pocket, and there, to his amazement, he found
the little bag of money. "Well, well!" he exclaimed, "I am stupid,
indeed! I really th