rst kissed Old Pipes on his cheek
and then kissed his mother.

Old Pipes, who had stopped playing, knew what it was, but he did not
move, and said nothing. His mother, thinking that her son had kissed
her, turned to him with a smile and kissed him in return. And then she
arose and went into the cottage, a vigorous woman of sixty, followed by
her son, erect and happy, and twenty years younger than herself.

The Dryad sped away to the woods, shrugging her shoulders as she felt
the cool evening wind.

When she reached the great oak, she turned the key and opened the door.
"Come out," said she to the Echo-dwarf, who sat blinking within. "Winter
is coming on, and I want the comfortable shelter of my tree for myself.
The cattle have come down from the mountain for the last time this year,
the pipes will no longer sound, and you can go to your rocks and have a
holiday until next spring."

Upon hearing these words the dwarf skipped quickly out, and the Dryad
entered the tree and pulled the door shut after her. "Now, then," she
said to herself, "he can break off the key if he likes. It does not
matter to me. Another will grow out next spring. And although the good
piper made me no promise, I know that when the warm days arrive next
year, he will come and let me out again."

The Echo-dwarf did not stop to break the key of the tree. He was too
happy to be released to think of anything else, and he hastened as fast
as he could to his home on the rocky hill-side.

The Dryad was not mistaken when she trusted in the piper. When the warm
days came again he went to the oak tree to let her out. But, to his
sorrow and surprise, he found the great tree lying upon the ground. A
winter storm had blown it down, and it lay with its trunk shattered and
split. And what became of the Dryad no one ever knew.

204

John Ruskin (1819-1900), the most eloquent of
English prose writers, was much interested in
the question of literature for both grown-ups
and children. He edited a reissue of Taylor's
translation of Grimms' _Popular Stories_,
issued "Dame Wiggins of Lee and Her Seven
Wonderful Cats" (see No. 143), and wrote that
masterpiece among modern stories for children,
_The King of the Golden River_. Its fine
idealism, splendidly imagined structure,
wonderful word-paintings, and perfect English
all combine to justify the high place assign