d
making a famous salad."

"Oh!" said both the children, "may we help her dress the salad?"

"Certainly, my wife will be very pleased to find that you can be so
useful; there, just opposite in the passage, is a door that leads into
the kitchen where my wife is busy."

The children followed his directions and went into the kitchen, and
there sat Mrs Easter Hare.

"Good morning, Mrs Easter Hare," said the children politely, curtsying
and bowing, "we have come to help you in the household, and to stay with
you till we are grown up; but now please let us make the salad."

"Well, that is very kind of you, I'm sure, to want to help me," said Mrs
Easter Hare, and the children set to work at once.

After this the children helped her every day in the kitchen in the
morning, and in the afternoon they learnt from father Easter Hare how to
paint the eggs smoothly and prettily, and how to read and write; for the
Easter Hare is educated, you must know, and far more intelligent than
ordinary hares. When they grew up and went out into the world again,
Paulchen became a celebrated artist and lived in the artist colony at
Cronberg, and little Luischen married, and became an exemplary
housewife; but their best friends throughout their lives were always

MR AND MRS EASTER HARE.

THE NIXY LAKE

In one of the wildest and most romantic parts of Germany, there is a
high mountain which is as renowned for the strange stories that are told
about it, as for its many natural peculiarities. It is flat on the top,
falling off precipitously on every side. In recent times a high tower
has been built on the very edge of the rock. Curious to say, the ground
on the summit of this mountain is a bog or morass; flat slabs of stone
have been placed on it to enable bold tourists to reach the tower
without sinking in unawares. There is a bronze ring on a balcony
surrounding the tower, with darts pointing in different directions,
showing where London, Paris, and St Petersburg, for instance, are
situated. I need hardly say that these towns are not visible, but that
if a straight line could be drawn from this spot, it would reach them.

Not far below the summit there is a mysterious-looking lake, which it is
strange indeed to find at so high a level. A huge cliff formed of
boulders of rock rises on the one side of the lake; it falls like a
great wall straight into the water; only daring little ferns and plants
have a foothold on it; the lake is