ow dusky, and they lit in a little wet
morass on a wooded hill. The morass was certainly a good night quarter
for the wild geese, but the boy thought it dismal and rough, and wished
for a better sleeping place. While he was still high in the air, he had
noticed that below the ridge lay a number of farms, and with great haste
he proceeded to seek them out.

They were farther away than he had fancied and several times he was
tempted to turn back. Presently the woods became less dense, and he came
to a road skirting the edge of the forest. From it branched a pretty
birch-bordered lane, which led down to a farm, and immediately he
hastened toward it.

First the boy entered a farm yard as large as a city marketplace and
enclosed by a long row of red houses. As he crossed the yard, he saw
another farm where the dwelling-house faced a gravel path and a wide
lawn. Back of the house there was a garden thick with foliage. The
dwelling itself was small and humble, but the garden was edged by a row
of exceedingly tall mountain-ash trees, so close together that they
formed a real wall around it. It appeared to the boy as if he were
coming into a great, high-vaulted chamber, with the lovely blue sky for
a ceiling. The mountain-ash were thick with clusters of red berries, the
grass plots were still green, of course, but that night there was a full
moon, and as the bright moonlight fell upon the grass it looked as white
as silver.

No human being was in sight and the boy could wander freely wherever he
wished. When he was in the garden he saw something which almost put him
in good humour. He had climbed a mountain-ash to eat berries, but before
he could reach a cluster he caught sight of a barberry bush, which was
also full of berries. He slid along the ash branch and clambered up into
the barberry bush, but he was no sooner there than he discovered a
currant bush, on which still hung long red clusters. Next he saw that
the garden was full of gooseberries and raspberries and dog-rose bushes;
that there were cabbages and turnips in the vegetable beds and berries
on every bush, seeds on the herbs and grain-filled ears on every blade.
And there on the path--no, of course he could not mistake it--was a big
red apple which shone in the moonlight.

The boy sat down at the side of the path, with the big red apple in
front of him, and began cutting little pieces from it with his sheath
knife.

"It wouldn't be such a serious matter to be