rself, quite a pocket full. Ib and Christina looked at the wishing
nuts with wide open eyes.

"Is there in this nut a carriage, with a pair of horses?" asked
Ib.

"Yes, there is a golden carriage, with two golden horses," replied
the woman.

"Then give me that nut," said Christina; so Ib gave it to her, and
the strange woman tied up the nut for her in her handkerchief.

Ib held up another nut. "Is there, in this nut, a pretty little
neckerchief like the one Christina has on her neck?" asked Ib.

"There are ten neckerchiefs in it," she replied, "as well as
beautiful dresses, stockings, and a hat and veil."

"Then I will have that one also," said Christina; "and it is a
pretty one too." And then Ib gave her the second nut.

The third was a little black thing. "You may keep that one,"
said Christina; "it is quite as pretty."

"What is in it?" asked Ib.

"The best of all things for you," replied the gypsy. So Ib held
the nut very tight.

Then the woman promised to lead the children to the right path,
that they might find their way home: and they went forward certainly
in quite another direction to the one they meant to take; therefore no
one ought to speak against the woman, and say that she wanted to steal
the children. In the wild wood-path they met a forester who knew Ib,
and, by his help, Ib and Christina reached home, where they found
every one had been very anxious about them. They were pardoned and
forgiven, although they really had both done wrong, and deserved to
get into trouble; first, because they had let the sucking-pig fall
into the water; and, secondly, because they had run away. Christina
was taken back to her father's house on the heath, and Ib remained
in the farm-house on the borders of the wood, near the great land
ridge.

The first thing Ib did that evening was to take out of his
pocket the little black nut, in which the best thing of all was said
to be enclosed. He laid it carefully between the door and the
door-post, and then shut the door so that the nut cracked directly.
But there was not much kernel to be seen; it was what we should call
hollow or worm-eaten, and looked as if it had been filled with tobacco
or rich black earth. "It is just what I expected!" exclaimed Ib.
"How should there be room in a little nut like this for the best thing
of all? Christina will find her two nuts just the same; there will
be neither fine clothes or a golden carriage in them."

Winter came; and the