incess there said to himself: "A flying ship is all
very well, but the Princess is very beautiful, and to wed her will be
the most wonderful thing in the world."

So Simple and the Princess were married, and the crew of the flying ship
were at the wedding, and all of the captains and the colonels and the
generals of his army, and never had there been such a wedding in the
kingdom. And by and by the King died, and Simple became the King, and
the Princess became the Queen, and they lived happily ever after.

ROBIN OF THE LOVING HEART

BY EMMA ENDICOTT MAREAN

"_Please, Mother, tell us a story. Have him a wood-chopper boy this
time. Please, Mother, quick, for Elizabeth is sleepy already. Oh,
Mother, hurry!_"

_So here is the story._

* * *

Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived all alone with his
parents in the heart of a deep wood. His father was a wood-chopper who
worked hard in the forest all day, while the mother kept everything tidy
at home and took care of Robin. Robin was an obliging, sunny-hearted
little fellow who chopped the kindling as sturdily as his father chopped
the dead trees and broken branches, and then he brought the water and
turned the spit for his mother.

As there were no other children in the great forest, he made friends
with the animals and learned to understand their talk. In the spring the
mother robin, for whom he thought he was named, called him to see the
blue eggs in her nest, and in the autumn the squirrels chattered with
him and brought him nuts. But his four dearest friends were the Owl, who
came to his window evenings and gave him wise counsel; the Hare, who
played hide-and-seek with him around the bushes; the Eagle, who brought
him strange pebbles and shells from the distant seashore; and the Lion,
who, for friendship's sake, had quite reformed his habits and his
appetite, so that he lapped milk from Robin's bowl and simply adored
breakfast foods.

Suddenly all the happiness in the little cottage was turned to mourning,
when the good wood-chopper was taken ill, and the mother was at her
wits' end to take care of him and to provide bread and milk. Robin's
heart burned within him to do something to help, but he could not swing
an ax with his little hands.

"Ah," he said that night to his friend the Owl, "if I were a great
knight, perhaps I could ride to the city and win the Prize for Good
Luck."

"And what is the Prize for Good Luck?