r, but Ito, a brave soldier, said, "I shall not
sleep; let me one night guard the sweet O Haru San."

Her father led him to the chamber. Just at midnight Ito felt his eyes
grow heavy.

He rose and held his sword above his head. "Rather will I die than
sleep," he said.

Then came a great struggle. Often his head nodded, but by his love and
strength Ito conquered sleep.

Suddenly he heard a voice which said, "Grate foxes' livers in the
princess' rice broth and all her ills will disappear."

The next morning the hunters searched far and near for foxes. They knew
that to the emperor a fox was worth its weight in gold. All day and
night they were in the woods without food or rest.

At last they came sadly back to their homes. They brought no fox.

"All the foxes know," they said, "and have hidden themselves away."

The emperor in grief and anger cried, "Must my child perish? Shall a
princess die for the lack of one poor fox?

"She was never willing that one should be slain and this is her reward."

Ito said, "I will get the fox." He started out with knife and net to
seek it.

At the entrance of the town he met a woman dressed in strange garments.
Very small and stooped she seemed to Ito. She carried a jar in her arms.
She bowed low before Ito, and said, "What you seek is in the jar. I
have brought it from afar."

"Here is gold," said Ito. "What is the price?"

The woman pulled the blue hood farther over her face and said, "Another
time will do, I can wait. Hasten now to the princess."

Gladly Ito obeyed.

They made the broth in a bowl of beaten gold and fed it to O Haru San.

Immediately she was well and all was joy in the emperor's house.

The emperor said, "Ito, is she, who brought this blessing, paid?"

Ito answered, "Yonder she waits at the entrance of the town."

The emperor himself in his great joy went with Ito to meet her.

But they found only a dog-fox dead.

Around his neck they read this message, "This is my husband here.

"For his child he gives his liver to the princess, dear. I, his very
lowly wife, have brought it."

[Illustration]

PERSEPHONE.

Demeter had the care of all the plants, fruits and grains in the world.

She taught the people how to plow the fields and plant the seeds.

She helped them gather in their harvests.

They loved the kind earth-mother and gladly obeyed her.

They also loved her daughter, the beautiful Persephone.

Persephone wandered all day i