with a wreath of flowers round her neck.

'Good-morning,' she said pleasantly, as she came up to the place where
the boy was standing.

'Good-morning,' he returned. 'Where are you going in such a hurry?'

'To the miller's wedding; I am rather late already, for the wreath
took such a long time to make, so I can't stop.'

'Don't go,' said the boy earnestly; 'when once they have tasted your
milk they will never let you leave them, and you will have to serve
them all the days of your life.'

'Oh, nonsense; what do _you_ know about it?' answered the cow, who
always thought she was wiser than other people. 'Why, I can run twice
as fast as any of them! I should like to see anybody try to keep me
against my will.' And, without even a polite bow, she went on her way,
feeling very much offended.

But everything turned out just as the boy had said. The company had
all heard of the fame of the cow's milk, and persuaded her to give
them some, and then her doom was sealed. A crowd gathered round her,
and held her horns so that she could not use them, and, like the
horse, she was shut in the stable, and only let out in the mornings,
when a long rope was tied round her head, and she was fastened to a
stake in a grassy meadow.

And so it happened to the goat and to the sheep.

Last of all came the reindeer, looking as he always did, as if some
serious business was on hand.

'Where are you going?' asked the boy, who by this time was tired of
wild cherries, and was thinking of his dinner.

'I am invited to the wedding,' answered the reindeer, 'and the miller
has begged me on no account to fail him.'

'O fool!' cried the boy, 'have you no sense at all? Don't you know
that when you get there they will hold you fast, for neither beast nor
bird is as strong or as swift as you?'

'That is exactly why I am quite safe,' replied the reindeer. 'I am so
strong that no one can bind me, and so swift that not even an arrow
can catch me. So, good-bye for the present, you will soon see me
back.'

But none of the animals that went to the miller's wedding ever came
back. And because they were self-willed and conceited, and would not
listen to good advice, they and their children have been the servants
of men to this very day.

[_Lapplaendische Maehrchen._]

_FORTUNE AND THE WOOD-CUTTER_

Several hundreds of years ago there lived in a forest a wood-cutter
and his wife and children. He was very poor, having only his axe to
dep