ll," the
goodman replied.

"You must not gather sticks to-day," said the voice more sternly than
ever. "It is Sunday. Put them down."

"Indeed, Mr. Voice, I dare not," whispered the goodman; and afar off he
thought he heard his wife calling, "Goodman, where are you? There is no
wood to burn."

"Will you put them down, or will you carry them forever?" cried the
voice angrily.

"Truly, I cannot put them down, for I dare not go home without them,"
answered the goodman, shaking with fear from head to foot. "The goodwife
would not like it."

"Then carry them forever," said the voice. "You care not for Sunday, and
you shall never have another Sunday."

The goodman could not tell how it came about, but he felt himself being
lifted, up, up, up, sticks and all, till he was in the moon.

"Here you shall stay," said the voice sternly. "You will not keep
Sunday, and here you need not. This is the moon, and so it is always the
moon's day, or Monday, and Monday it shall be with you always. Whenever
any one looks up at the moon, he will say, 'See the man with the sticks
on his back. He was taken to the moon because he gathered wood on
Sunday.'"

"Oh dear, oh dear," cried the goodman, "what will the goodwife say?"

THE TWIN STARS.

In front of the little house was a pine-tree, and every night at the
time when the children went to bed, a bright star appeared over the top
of the tree and looked in at the window. The children were brother and
sister. They were twins, and so they always had each other to play with.

"Now go to sleep," the mother would say when she had kissed them
good-night, but it was hard to go to sleep when such a beautiful,
radiant thing was shining in at the window of the little house.

"What do you suppose is in the star?" asked the sister.

"I think there are daisies and honey and violets and butterflies and
bluebirds," answered the brother.

"And I think there are roses and robins and berries and humming-birds,"
said the sister.

"There must be trees and grass too, and I am sure there are pearls and
diamonds."

"I can almost see them now," declared the sister. "I wish we could
really see them. To-morrow let us go and find the star."

When morning came, the star was gone, but they said, "It was just behind
the pine-tree, and so it must be on the blue mountain." The blue
mountain was a long way off, but it looked near, and the twins thought
they could walk to it in an hour. All day long