poultry yard will grow to be large fowls if I
make my voice heard in the world."

And the hens and chickens clucked and chirped, and the cock told them a
great piece of news. "A cock can lay an egg," he said. "And what do you
think is in that egg? In that egg lies a basilisk. No one can endure the
sight of a basilisk. Men know my power, and now you know what I am
capable of, also, and what a renowned bird I am." And with this the
yard cock flapped his wings, erected his comb, and crowed again, till
all the hens and chickens trembled; but they were proud that one of
their race should be of such renown in the world. They clucked and they
chirped so that the weathercock heard it; he had heard it all, but had
not stirred.

"It's all stupid stuff," said a voice within the weathercock. "The yard
cock does not lay eggs any more than I do, and I am too lazy. I could
lay a wind egg if I liked, but the world is not worth a wind egg. And
now I don't intend to sit here any longer."

With that, the weathercock broke off and fell into the yard. He did not
kill the yard cock, although the hens said he intended to do so.

And what does the moral say? "Better to crow than to be vainglorious and
break down at last."

[Illustration]

THE RED SHOES

THERE was once a pretty, delicate little girl, who was so poor that she
had to go barefoot in summer and wear coarse wooden shoes in winter,
which made her little instep quite red.

In the center of the village there lived an old shoemaker's wife. One
day this good woman made, as well as she could, a little pair of shoes
out of some strips of old red cloth. The shoes were clumsy enough, to be
sure, but they fitted the little girl tolerably well, and anyway the
woman's intention was kind. The little girl's name was Karen.

On the very day that Karen received the shoes, her mother was to be
buried. They were not at all suitable for mourning, but she had no
others, so she put them on her little bare feet and followed the poor
plain coffin to its last resting place.

Just at that time a large, old-fashioned carriage happened to pass by,
and the old lady who sat in it saw the little girl and pitied her.

"Give me the little girl," she said to the clergyman, "and I will take
care of her."

Karen supposed that all this happened because of the red shoes, but the
old lady thought them frightful and ordered them to be burned. Karen was
then dressed in neat, well-fitting cloth