w can water go tumbling?" cried Jill. "_We_ tumbled."

"Water tumbles too," replied the voice, "especially when it is frozen."

"Oh!" said Jack.

"Oh!" said Jill.

"The stream is frozen," called the voice.

"What stream?" asked the children together.

"The stream that goes down the hill," answered the voice. "Did you not
know that you were bringing water to keep the stream full?"

"No, indeed," said the children.

"The old man of the hill is only a rock, and what you thought his voice
was only the water flowing around it."

[Illustration]

"Oh!" cried Jack.

"Oh!" cried Jill.

"The stream is frozen," said the voice, "and the earth has a cloak of
snow and ice."

"Who are you?" asked Jill shyly.

"Do you really not know? What a strange child you are! I am the moon, of
course. Very pleasant people live with me, and I have come to invite you
both to go home with me. Will you come?"

The children looked up through the trees, and there was the gentle face
of the moon, looking more gentle and kind than ever. "Come," said she,
and they went very willingly. They have lived in the moon many years,
but they never again carried a pail of water for a stream. "That is the
work of the clouds and the sun," says the moon.

WHY THERE IS A MAN IN THE MOON.

"Goodman," said the goodwife, "you must go out into the forest and
gather sticks for the fire. To-morrow will be Sunday, and we have no
wood to burn."

"Yes, goodwife," answered the goodman, "I will go to the forest."

He did go to the forest, but he sat on a mossy rock and fished till it
was dark, and so he brought home no wood. "The goodwife shall not know
it," he thought. "I will go to the forest to-morrow morning and gather
sticks."

When morning came, he crept softly out of the house when it was hardly
light, and went to the forest. Soon he had as many sticks as he could
carry, and he was starting for home when a voice called sternly, "Put
those sticks down." He looked to the right, to the left, before him,
behind him, and over his head. There was no one to be seen.

"Put those sticks down," said the voice again.

"Please, I do not dare to put them down," replied the goodman, trembling
with fear. "They are to burn, and my wife cannot cook the dinner without
them."

"You will have no dinner to-day," said the voice.

"The goodwife will not know that I did not gather them last night, and
she will let me have some dinner. I am almost sure she wi