d," she added, "one advice more I will give you, and it was given
you by your father, though you forgot it; it is this--if ever you feel
the thread slipping from your hands, or are yourself tempted to let it
go, pray immediately, and you will get wisdom and strength to find it,
to lay hold of it, and to follow it. Before we part, kneel down and ask
assistance to be good and obedient, brave and patient, until you meet
your father." The little boy knelt down and repeated the Lord's Prayer;
and as he said, "Thy will be done on earth, as it is done in heaven," he
felt calm and happy as he used to do when he knelt at his mother's knee,
and he thought her hand was waving over him, as if to bless him. When he
lifted up his head there was no one there but himself; but he saw an old
gray cross, and a GOLD THREAD was tied to it, and passed away, away,
shining through the woods.

With a firm hold of his gold thread, the boy began his journey home.
He passed along path-ways on which the brown leaves of last year's
growth were thickly strewn, and from among which flowers of every
colour were springing. He crossed little brooks that ran like silver
threads, and tinkled like silver bells. He passed under trees with
great trunks, and huge branches that swept down to the ground, and
waved far up in the blue sky. The birds hopped about him, and looked
down upon him from among the green leaves, and they sang him songs,
and some of them seemed to speak to him. He thought one large bird
like a crow cried, "Good boy! good boy!" and another whistled, "Cheer
up! cheer up!" and so he went merrily on, and very often he gave the
robins and blackbirds that came near him bits of his cake. After
awhile, he came to a green spot in the middle of the wood, without
trees, and a footpath went direct across it, to the place where the
gold thread was leading him, and there he saw a sight that made him
wonder and pause. It was a bird about the size of a pigeon, with
feathers like gold and a crown like silver, and it was slowly walking
near him, and he saw gold eggs glittering in a nest among the grass a
few yards off. Now, he thought, it would be such a nice thing to bring
home a nest with gold eggs! The bird did not seem afraid of him, but
stopped and looked at him with a calm blue eye, as if she said,
"Surely you would not rob me?" He could not, however, reach the nest
with his hand, and though he pulled and pulled the thread, it would
not yield one inch,