be guarded from enemies before it can grow."

So the toad and all his brothers, who had been hiding beneath the
stones of the field that they might not be killed, came out, and
tended the field. They ate the insects and other creatures that would
have destroyed the sprouts, and so the field grew.

It lay in the sunshine, bright with flowers, and green with the
sprouts of growing food and trees.

"A fertile field!" said the farmer. "I shall help it to grow."

"The field is alive!" cried the children. "We can go in it and help
the farmer."

"The field is rich!" said all the people who lived near by. "It is
growing, and will help us to live."

And the field was cleaned, and enriched, and ploughed, and planted,
and nourished, and tended each year by the hands of children and men.
They took away the clods and the stones, for they had found out the
secret hidden underneath. The field was alive, and it had a great wish
to grow.

THE MAGIC SAUCEPAN

A long time ago, in the days of the fairies and other little folk,
there lived a housewife who was very stingy indeed. She thought only
of her own cupboard and meals, and never of the needs of her
neighbors. When she did give alms it was a dry loaf or a scraped bone
for which she had no use, and she looked for great reward because she
gave even these.

She lived in the country, not far from the hills where the little
Hillmen stayed. The Hillmen were fairy folk, kin to the elves and in
appearance somewhat like the brownies. They made their homes in the
trunks of old trees or in the hollows of the hills, gathering nuts,
and grains, and such fruits as the farmers dropped at the time of
harvesting. They were generous, kind little folk and couldn't abide
meanness.

One day a Hillman came down and knocked at the door of the housewife.
When her maid-servant opened it a crack, he took off his little green
cap politely and told her his errand.

"We're giving a christening party on the hill to-night, good mother,"
the Hillman said, "and we need an extra saucepan, for all of ours are
in use. Will you lend us one?"

"Shall I loan one of our saucepans to the Hillman, mistress?" the
maid-servant asked.

"Oh, yes, I suppose it is wiser to be neighborly with them," the
housewife replied.

So the maid-servant went over to the side of the kitchen where the
pots hung on the wall to get a saucepan down. There was a fine supply
to choose from, large and small, polished coppe