am old, and you
are old, but we may live for each other just the same. As to marrying,
however, no! that would appear ridiculous at our age."

And so it happened that the butterfly got no wife at all. He had been
too long choosing, which is always a bad plan, and became what is called
an old bachelor.

It was late in the autumn, with rainy and cloudy weather. The cold wind
blew over the bowed backs of the willows, so that they creaked again. It
was not the weather for flying about in summer clothes, but fortunately
the butterfly was not out in it. By a happy chance he had got a shelter.
It was in a room heated by a stove and as warm as summer. He could live
here, he said, well enough.

"But it is not enough merely to exist," said he. "I need freedom,
sunshine, and a little flower for a companion."

So he flew against the window-pane and was seen and admired by those in
the room, who caught him and stuck him on a pin in a box of curiosities.
They could not do more for him.

"Now I am perched on a stalk like the flowers," said the butterfly. "It
is not very pleasant, certainly. I imagine it is something like being
married, for here I am stuck fast." And with this thought he consoled
himself a little.

"That seems very poor consolation," said one of the plants in the room,
that grew in a pot.

"Ah," thought the butterfly, "one can't very well trust these plants in
pots; they have had too much to do with human beings."

[Illustration]

THE GOBLIN AND THE HUCKSTER

THERE was once a regular student, who lived in a garret and had no
possessions. And there was also a regular huckster, to whom the house
belonged, and who occupied the ground floor. A goblin lived with the
huckster because at Christmas he always had a large dishful of jam, with
a great piece of butter in the middle. The huckster could afford this,
and therefore the goblin remained with him--which was very shrewd of the
goblin.

One evening the student came into the shop through the back door to buy
candles and cheese for himself; he had no one to send, and therefore he
came himself. He obtained what he wished, and then the huckster and his
wife nodded good evening to him. The huckster's wife was a woman who
could do more than merely nod, for she usually had plenty to say for
herself. The student nodded also, as he turned to leave, then suddenly
stopped and began reading the piece of paper in which the cheese was
wrapped. It was a leaf