er all about them when he came home.

But wishes do not make horses or sons, nor even daughters, and so this
poor old woman had to live a very lonely life indeed, which gave her a
great deal of time to think and to envy

_The old woman who lived in a shoe,
Who had so many children she didn't know what to do,_

who lived about the same time in another part of the country.

One evening, when the days were growing short and the nights were
correspondingly long and chilly, Matteo was on his way back to the
cottage, when he remembered that Sapatella had asked him to bring home
some faggots with him to cook with and to keep them warm, because, of
course, when you are a forester and live in a forest, you cannot expect
to have coal to burn in your grates, like those who live in towns and
villages.

There was plenty of brushwood, and heaps of twigs and fallen boughs
lying about, and, as he had his axe with him, which all good foresters
carry to clear a path for themselves through the dense undergrowths, it
was not long before Matteo had collected a great bundle of faggots which
was just as much as he could carry on his back.

But Matteo carried home with him on his back more than a mere bundle of
dry boughs and twigs, although he did not know it. Neither did
Sapatella, not until the next morning after Matteo had gone off to his
work, when she went to the wood pile to get some sticks to put under her
pot to boil the nice rabbit which Matteo had shot for her the day
before. She picked up a bundle and was about to place it on the fire
when a tiny serpent, oh, ever so tiny! slithered and wriggled its way
out of the twigs and coiled itself up on the rug.

Being a forester's wife, Sapatella was not the least bit frightened of
serpents or mice or beetles or other dreadful beasts; besides, it was
such a tiny serpent, all yellow as can be; and, when the firelight
danced on it, it shone bright and gleaming like gold.

'Ah me, said the good woman with a sigh, 'even the serpents have their
young ones, but I have no one.'

Then the serpent uncoiled and stretched itself out towards her and
spoke. All kinds of animals spoke in those days, as you will notice if
you read the story through, though not so frequently but that the good
woman was surprised and startled to hear it.

'You may have me for your child if you will,' it said.

_'Keep me warm and feed me well,
And fortune will upon you dwell.'_

Sapatella was,