then, when I was turned down. I
shall never forget my first love; she was a girdle, so charming, and
fine, and soft, and she threw herself into a washing tub for my
sake. There was a widow too, who was warmly in love with me, but I
left her alone, and she became quite black. The next was a
first-rate dancer; she gave me the wound from which I still suffer,
she was so passionate. Even my own hair-brush was in love with me, and
lost all her hair through neglected love. Yes, I have had great
experience of this kind, but my greatest grief was for the garter--the
girdle I meant to say--that jumped into the wash-tub. I have a great
deal on my conscience, and it is really time I should be turned into
white paper."

And the shirt collar came to this at last. All the rags were
made into white paper, and the shirt collar became the very
identical piece of paper which we now see, and on which this story
is printed. It happened as a punishment to him, for having boasted
so shockingly of things which were not true. And this is a warning
to us, to be careful how we act, for we may some day find ourselves in
the rag-bag, to be turned into white paper, on which our whole history
may be written, even its most secret actions. And it would not be
pleasant to have to run about the world in the form of a piece of
paper, telling everything we have done, like the boasting shirt
collar.

THE SNOW MAN

"It is so delightfully cold," said the Snow Man, "that it makes my
whole body crackle. This is just the kind of wind to blow life into
one. How that great red thing up there is staring at me!" He meant the
sun, who was just setting. "It shall not make me wink. I shall
manage to keep the pieces."

He had two triangular pieces of tile in his head, instead of eyes;
his mouth was made of an old broken rake, and was, of course,
furnished with teeth. He had been brought into existence amidst the
joyous shouts of boys, the jingling of sleigh-bells, and the
slashing of whips. The sun went down, and the full moon rose, large,
round, and clear, shining in the deep blue.

"There it comes again, from the other side," said the Snow Man,
who supposed the sun was showing himself once more. "Ah, I have
cured him of staring, though; now he may hang up there, and shine,
that I may see myself. If I only knew how to manage to move away
from this place,--I should so like to move. If I could, I would
slide along yonder on the ice, as I have seen the boys