onkey-eared man, dancing about the room.

All the next day Ned trudged on alone until towards evening, he came to
the edge of a pine-forest, where close at hand stood a small hut made of
pine-branches, plastered with mud and thatched with rye-straw. No sooner
had he tapped on the door than it was opened by a girl. She looked out
timidly, thinking, I suppose, it might be a robber. But when she saw
Ned, she smiled.

"Come in," she said, and Ned saw four small children staring curiously
at him.

The room was very smoky, for there was no chimney to the rude hut. A
hole in the roof let the smoke out, and there were no windows, for the
father of these children was a poor peasant who made his living by
gathering turpentine in the pine forest.

Ned sat down, while the girl went on with her work until the black beans
were ready for supper, when she put them all in a big wooden bowl, and
invited Ned to join her and the four children.

While they were eating out of the bowl with a wooden spoon, a tame
jackdaw who had been sitting on an old stool by the fireside, hopped
over and perched himself close to Ned.

When the supper was over, and the children were ready for bed, he
whispered, "This little family is very poor. Their father is away
selling turpentine, and there is little food in the cupboard. But if you
will come with me tonight, I will show you how we can help them."

When all the children were sound asleep, Ned looked over to the fireside
where the jackdaw sat, his eyes shining brighter and brighter through
the darkness, till they made the room so light that Ned could plainly
see the five sleeping children huddled together on the straw bed in the
corner.

Then the jackdaw nodded, and hopping down from the stool on which he
sat, walked softly over to the door.

The moon shone brightly on the bare brown fields silvered with white
frost, and in the still, cold air, the forest looked like a black cloud
just dropped upon the earth.

THE MAGIC BASKET

The Little Old Woman made a low bow to the Jackdaw.

[Illustration]

THE MAGIC BASKET

ON and on they went, the jackdaw hopping over the rough fields, and now
and then turning his head and winking his fiery eyes at Ned, until they
found themselves at the foot of a high, round hill.

At one side of the great mound the stream which they had been following
suddenly stopped short, making a deep well, over which hung an old oak
tree, leafless now, but still s