ll extinguished, and the torches outside
had vanished. The storks were gone; not a guest could be seen; no
bridegroom--all in those few short moments seemed to have died. Then a
great dread fell upon her. She stepped from the verandah through the
empty hall into the next chamber, where slept strange warriors. She
opened a side door, which once led into her own apartment, but now, as
she passed through, she found herself suddenly in a garden which she
had never before seen here, the sky blushed red, it was the dawn of
morning. Three minutes only in heaven, and a whole night on earth
had passed away! Then she saw the storks, and called to them in
their own language.

Then stork-papa turned his head towards here, listened to her
words, and drew near. "You speak our language," said he, "what do
you wish? Why do you appear,--you--a strange woman?"

"It is I--it is Helga! Dost thou not know me? Three minutes ago we
were speaking together yonder in the verandah."

"That is a mistake," said the stork, "you must have dreamed all
this."

"No, no," she exclaimed. Then she reminded him of the Viking's
castle, of the great lake, and of the journey across the ocean.

Then stork-papa winked his eyes, and said, "Why that's an old
story which happened in the time of my grandfather. There certainly
was a princess of that kind here in Egypt once, who came from the
Danish land, but she vanished on the evening of her wedding day,
many hundred years ago, and never came back. You may read about it
yourself yonder, on a monument in the garden. There you will find
swans and storks sculptured, and on the top is a figure of the
princess Helga, in marble."

And so it was; Helga understood it all now, and sank on her knees.
The sun burst forth in all its glory, and, as in olden times, the form
of the frog vanished in his beams, and the beautiful form stood
forth in all its loveliness; so now, bathed in light, rose a beautiful
form, purer, clearer than air--a ray of brightness--from the Source of
light Himself. The body crumbled into dust, and a faded lotus-flower
lay on the spot on which Helga had stood.

"Now that is a new ending to the story," said stork-papa; "I
really never expected it would end in this way, but it seems a very
good ending."

"And what will the young ones say to it, I wonder?" said
stork-mamma.

"Ah, that is a very important question," replied the stork.

THE METAL PIG

In the city of Florence, not far fro