ng a great deal of bread every day.

"Are you ready to keep the thanksgiving day as the King would like you
to?" the messenger asked of the baker's boy.

"Oh, yes!" the boy said. "I have this basket to gather up whatever
remains of the King's feast and bring it home with me. The King would
not want anything wasted. Will you take me?"

But the messenger shook his head a third time, for the child was not
ready.

Then he did not know which way to go, and he began to think that he
would not be able to find any guest for the King's feast. As he
waited, he saw two children, a girl and a boy, coming toward him. They
were poor children, and one was leading the other, for he was lame.
The messenger looked at them. The little girl had eyes like stars and
her hair, blowing in the November wind, was like a cloud made golden
by the sunset. She held her head so high, and smiled so bravely that
no one would have noticed her old dress and the holes in her coat. The
messenger stood in the road in front of her and spoke to her.

"Are you ready to keep the thanksgiving day as the King would like you
to?" he asked.

The little girl looked up in the messenger's face in surprise.

"No, I am not ready," she said, "but this child is. I am bringing him
because he is lame, and because he is hungry. Will you take him?" she
asked.

"Yes," said the messenger, "and you, too. There is room at the King's
table for both."

WINTER

THE GRAY HARE

A gray hare lived during the winter near a village. When night came,
he would prick up one ear and listen, then he would prick up the
other, jerk his whiskers, snuff, and sit up on his hind legs.

Then he would give one leap, two leaps, through the snow, and sit up
again on his hind legs and look all around.

On all sides nothing was to be seen except snow. The snow lay in
billows and glittered like silver. Above the hare was frosty vapor,
and through this vapor glistened the big white stars.

The hare was obliged to make a long circuit across the highway to
reach his favorite granary. On the highway he could hear the creaking
of the sledges, the whinnying of horses, the groaning of the seats in
the sledges.

Once more the hare paused near the road. The peasants were walking
alongside of their sledges, with their coat collars turned up. Their
faces were scarcely visible. Their beards, their eyebrows were white.
Steam came from their mouths and noses.

Their horses were covered with