they walked. They went
through the lonely woods, they crossed brooks, they climbed hills, and
still they could not find the radiant star that had looked in at their
window. The hour had come when their mother always put them to bed and
kissed them and said good-night, but now they had no mother, no
good-night kiss, and no bed. They were tired and sleepy. They heard
strange sounds in the forest, and they were frightened. "I am so tired,"
the sister whispered. "I am afraid a bear will come. I wish we could see
the star."

The sky had grown dark, and a star could be seen here and there, but it
was not their star. They went on till they could go no farther. "We will
lie down on the grass," said the brother, "and cover ourselves up with
leaves, and go to sleep."

Tired as they were, they did not have time to go to sleep before they
heard a bear calling "Ugh! Ugh!" in the woods. They sprang up and ran
out of the woods, and just before they came to the bottom of the hill,
they saw right in front of them a beautiful little lake. They were not
frightened any more, for there in the water was something radiant and
shining. "It is our own star," said they, "and it has come down to us."
They never thought of looking up into the sky over their heads. It was
enough for them that the star was in the water and so near them. But was
it calling them? They thought so. "Come," cried the brother, "take my
hand, and we will go to the star." Then the spirit of the skies lifted
them up gently and carried them away on a beautiful cloud.

The father and mother sat alone in the little house one evening, looking
sadly out of the window through which the twins had looked. "There is
the star that they loved," the mother said. "I have often listened to
them while they talked of it. It is rising over the pine-tree in front
of the house." They sat and watched the star. It was brighter and more
radiant than ever, and in it the father and mother saw the faces of
their lost children. "Oh, take us too, good spirit of the skies!" they
cried. The spirit heard them, and when the next evening came, close
beside the star there was another star. In that were the father and
mother, and at last they and the children were all very happy to be
together again.

THE LANTERN AND THE FAN.

In a Japanese village there once lived a man who had two sons. When the
sons were grown up, each brought home a wife from another village a long
distance away. The fathe