, and a brown track was burned up over his back to his
shoulders, and the curl has remained in his tail to this day.

The frog had a harder fate.

He was the last one in the line of beasts. When the brand reached him it
was smaller than the smallest coal in the grate.

He seized it carefully and jumped forward as fast as he could, but the
hand of the foremost beldam caught him and held him fast.

How his heart beat!

His eyeballs bulged out of his head, and he has looked ever since much
in the same scared way.

He did not lose his courage, however. He swallowed the coal and sprang
into the water.

Sad to tell, the beldam still held in her hand his special pride and
care, his tail.

Henceforth only the tadpoles could wear tails.

The frog sought a log and sat down upon it to think.

"I did my duty, even if I lost my beauty," he thought; "that is enough
for a frog. This spark must be saved."

After much choking he spat the swallowed spark well into the bark.

The gift came, in this way, to all men; for, in even the wettest
weather, if you rub two sticks together, fire is sure to come.

Because we know how the frog hurt his throat that day, we like to listen
to his hoarse voice when we hear him singing to his children in the
spring.

BALDER.

The people in the North once believed that high above the clouds was the
beautiful plain of Asgard.

Odin, ruler of Asgard, mighty Thor, and many other heroes lived on the
plain.

Their homes were great castles, splendid with silver and gold.

In the middle of the plain, and apart from the other dwellings, stood a
pure white palace.

Nothing that was not fair and good had ever dared to enter it.

It was the home of Balder.

Because of his great beauty and wisdom, he was called "Balder the
beautiful," and "Balder the good."

Everything loved him.

The dull rocks and the gray old mountains met him with a smile.

The flowers opened, the birds sang and the water sparkled when they saw
his face.

One night he dreamed that he must soon leave Asgard and all the things
that he loved.

The next night he dreamed that he was living in the gloomy underground
world.

The third night, when the same terrible dream came to him, he was
greatly troubled.

He told Odin, his father, and Frigga, his mother, about it.

Odin, in great fear, called together his wisest heroes.

They shook their heads but could do nothing to help him.

Frigga cried, "It shall