ked what was the matter.

'Have you a pair of eyes anywhere about you?' asked the fox politely.

'No, I am afraid I haven't,' answered the grouse, and passed on.

A little while after the fox heard the buzzing of an early bee, whom a
gleam of sun had tempted out.

'Do you happen to have an extra pair of eyes anywhere?' asked the fox.

'I am sorry to say I have only those I am using,' replied the bee. And
the fox went on till he nearly fell over an asp who was gliding across
the road.

'I should be SO glad if you would tell me where I could get a pair of
eyes,' said the fox. 'I suppose you don't happen to have any you could
lend me?'

'Well, if you only want them for a short time, perhaps I could manage,'
answered the asp; 'but I can't do without them for long.'

'Oh, it is only for a very short time that I need them,' said the fox;
'I have a pair of my own just behind that hill, and when I find them I
will bring yours back to you. Perhaps you will keep these till them.'
So he took the eyes out of his own head and popped them into the head of
the asp, and put the asp's eyes in their place. As he was running off he
cried over his shoulder: 'As long as the world lasts the asps' eyes will
go down in the heads of foxes from generation to generation.'

And so it has been; and if you look at the eyes of an asp you will see
that they are all burnt; and though thousands and thousands of years
have gone by since the fox was going about playing tricks upon everybody
he met, the asp still bears the traces of the day when the sly creature
cooked the salmon.

[Lapplandische Mahrchen.]

Kisa the Cat

Once upon a time there lived a queen who had a beautiful cat, the colour
of smoke, with china-blue eyes, which she was very fond of. The cat was
constantly with her, and ran after her wherever she went, and even sat
up proudly by her side when she drove out in her fine glass coach.

'Oh, pussy,' said the queen one day, 'you are happier than I am! For you
have a dear kitten just like yourself, and I have nobody to play with
but you.'

'Don't cry,' answered the cat, laying her paw on her mistress's arm.
'Crying never does any good. I will see what can be done.'

The cat was as good as her word. As soon as she returned from her drive
she trotted off to the forest to consult a fairy who dwelt there, and
very soon after the queen had a little girl, who seemed made out of snow
and sunbeams. The queen was delighted, a