e girl was so delighted at the sight of it that she
gave each cat a kiss on his forehead as they left the room behind one
the other as they had come.

'Who has taught you this wisdom?' asked the old woman, after she had
passed her hands twice or thrice over the cloth and could find no
roughness anywhere. But the girl only smiled and did not answer. She had
learned early the value of silence.

After a few weeks the old woman sent for her maid and told her that as
her year of service was now up, she was free to return home, but that,
for her part, the girl had served her so well that she hoped she might
stay with her. But at these words the maid shook her head, and answered
gently:

'I have been happy here, Madam, and I thank you for your goodness to me;
but I have left behind me a stepsister and a stepmother, and I am fain
to be with them once more.' The old woman looked at her for a moment,
and then she said:

'Well, that must be as you like; but as you have worked faithfully for
me I will give you a reward. Go now into the loft above the store house
and there you will find many caskets. Choose the one which pleases you
best, but be careful not to open it till you have set it in the place
where you wish it to remain.'

The girl left the room to go to the loft, and as soon as she got
outside, she found all the cats waiting for her. Walking in procession,
as was their custom, they followed her into the loft, which was filled
with caskets big and little, plain and splendid. She lifted up one
and looked at it, and then put it down to examine another yet more
beautiful. Which should she choose, the yellow or the blue, the red or
the green, the gold or the silver? She hesitated long, and went first to
one and then to another, when she heard the cats' voices calling: 'Take
the black! take the black!'

The words make her look round--she had seen no black casket, but as
the cats continued their cry she peered into several corners that had
remained unnoticed, and at length discovered a little black box, so
small and so black, that it might easily have been passed over.

'This is the casket that pleases me best, mistress,' said the girl,
carrying it into the house. And the old woman smiled and nodded, and
bade her go her way. So the girl set forth, after bidding farewell
to the cows and the cats and the sparrows, who all wept as they said
good-bye.

She walked on and on and on, till she reached the flowery meadow, and
t