parsley, the
carrots and parsnips.

'Well,' he said, 'where has Little Lasse been so long?'

Little Lasse straightened himself up stiff, and answered: 'I have sailed
round the world in a pea-shell boat.'

'Oh!' said the gardener.

He has forgotten Dreamland. But you have not forgotten it; you know that
it exists. You know the beautiful grotto and the bright silver walls
whose lustre never fades, the sparkling diamonds which never grow dim,
the music which never ceases its low, soft murmur through the sweet
evening twilight. The airy fairy fancies of happy Dreamland never grow
old; they, like the glorious stars above us, are always young. Perhaps
you have caught a glimpse of their ethereal wings as they flew around
your pillow. Perhaps you have met the same dream-boy with the blue eyes
and the fair hair, the one who wore the red cap with the silver band and
the white coat with pearls on the collar. Perhaps he has taken you to
see all the countries of the world and the peoples, the cold waste lands
and the burning deserts, the many coloured men and the wild creatures
in the sea and in the woods, so that you may earn many things, but come
gladly home again. Yes, who knows? Perhaps you also have sailed round
the wide world once in a pea-shell boat.

From Z. Topelius.

'Moti'

Once upon a time there was a youth called Moti, who was very big and
strong, but the clumsiest creature you can imagine. So clumsy was he
that he was always putting his great feet into the bowls of sweet milk
or curds which his mother set out on the floor to cool, always smashing,
upsetting, breaking, until at last his father said to him:

'Here, Moti, are fifty silver pieces which are the savings of years;
take them and go and make your living or your fortune if you can.'

Then Moti started off one early spring morning with his thick staff over
his shoulder, singing gaily to himself as he walked along.

In one way and another he got along very well until a hot evening when
he came to a certain city where he entered the travellers' 'serai' or
inn to pass the night. Now a serai, you must know, is generally just a
large square enclosed by a high wall with an open colonnade along the
inside all round to accommodate both men and beasts, and with perhaps
a few rooms in towers at the corners for those who are too rich or too
proud to care about sleeping by their own camels and horses. Moti, of
course, was a country lad and had lived with