sought her on calm quiet evenings--ah,
nobody thinks of my clear eye and my silent glance! Alas! my
rose ran wild, like the rose bushes in the garden of the parsonage.
There are tragedies in every-day life, and tonight I saw the last
act of one.

"She was lying in bed in a house in that narrow street: she was
sick unto death, and the cruel landlord came up, and tore away the
thin coverlet, her only protection against the cold. 'Get up!' said
he; 'your face is enough to frighten one. Get up and dress yourself,
give me money, or I'll turn you out into the street! Quick--get up!'
She answered, 'Alas! death is gnawing at my heart. Let me rest.' But
he forced her to get up and bathe her face, and put a wreath of
roses in her hair; and he placed her in a chair at the window, with
a candle burning beside her, and went away.

"I looked at her, and she was sitting motionless, with her hands
in her lap. The wind caught the open window and shut it with a
crash, so that a pane came clattering down in fragments; but still she
never moved. The curtain caught fire, and the flames played about
her face; and I saw that she was dead. There at the open window sat
the dead woman, preaching a sermon against sin--my poor faded rose out
of the parsonage garden!"

FOURTH EVENING

"This evening I saw a German play acted," said the Moon. "It was
in a little town. A stable had been turned into a theatre; that is
to say, the stable had been left standing, and had been turned into
private boxes, and all the timber work had been covered with
coloured paper. A little iron chandelier hung beneath the ceiling, and
that it might be made to disappear into the ceiling, as it does in
great theatres, when the ting-ting of the prompter's bell is heard,
a great inverted tub has been placed just above it.

"'Ting-ting!' and the little iron chandelier suddenly rose at
least half a yard and disappeared in the tub; and that was the sign
that the play was going to begin. A young nobleman and his lady, who
happened to be passing through the little town, were present at the
performance, and consequently the house was crowded. But under the
chandelier was a vacant space like a little crater: not a single
soul sat there, for the tallow was dropping, drip, drip! I saw
everything, for it was so warm in there that every loophole had been
opened. The male and female servants stood outside, peeping through
the chinks, although a real policeman was inside, threaten