n under the old apple tree and I will come and find a comfortable
twig and tell you all about it."

When little Luke had seated himself cozily with his back against the
trunk of the old apple tree, Bob Lincoln began his story.

III. THE STORY OF THE SUMMER LAND

"Long, long ago when the world was new," said he, "the first Bob Lincoln
family lived in a beautiful country in the distant north. In that country
it was always summer. None of those who dwelt in that land knew what
winter was.

"Ke-honk-a the Gray Goose, who spent half the year in northern
Greenland, had mentioned it, but the people of the Summer Land did not
understand him. They had never felt winds or seen ice or snow.

"But there came a time when Ke-honk-a said, as he flew over, 'Winter is
coming, winter is coming.' But nobody understood and nobody cared. Why
should they care about winter when they did not know what it was?

"Soon after this the people of the Summer Land noticed a change in the
weather. One half of the year was cooler than the other half. The first
time this happened they did not mind it at all. Indeed, they rather
liked it. It was pleasant to have a change.

"The next year it was cooler and the next still cooler. And so it went
on for some years, each winter getting colder than that which had gone
before.

"One day a dull, gray cloud came up out of the north and hid the face of
the sun. Out of its gray bosom there came floating to earth a whole
flock of big, white snowflakes. The people of the Summer Land were
amazed.

"As the great flakes came wavering lazily down through the air, they
looked at them and thought that they must be some new kind of winged
creatures. 'What a lot of them,' thought they, 'there must be to make
that great cloud which hides the sun!'

"In a short time the sun shone out from behind the gray cloud. In the
twinkling of an eye all the snowflakes were gone. 'Strange, strange!'
thought the people of the Summer Land. 'What has become of all those
white-winged creatures?'

"The next winter so many snowflakes fell that they hid the brown earth
for many weeks. This happened again and again, and the people of the
Summer Land began to understand what winter was. The snow became so deep
for months at a time that they found it hard to get food.

"After a while life became so hard for them that they felt that
something must be done. So they summoned a Great Council to consider the
matter. After much talk