e boats down the little stream
that flowed past the old red house.

"This ship is going to India," he would say to Rhoda. "She carries
gold and will bring back pearls and rice."

"How much you know, Chrif," said Rhoda.

"I mean to go to India some day," said Chrif. "People ride on
elephants there."

Rhoda would sail little twigs in the stream. Her boats were small, but
they sometimes went farther than Chrif's. His were loaded so heavily
that they often overturned.

One day the children were sailing boats when a thunder-storm arose.
How fast the rain fell! And how fast they ran to the house!

"Poor grandmother will be all wet!" said Rhoda. She and Chrif were
watching the falling rain from the window.

Suddenly the sun came out. A little rain was still falling, but the
children ran into the yard.

"Look, there's a rainbow!" cried Chrif. "What pretty colours! and how
ugly our old red house looks! I wish I were where the rainbow is."

"I see just the colour of my larkspur in the rainbow," said Rhoda.

"O pooh!" said Chrif, "only a flower! That's not much. Now if I were
only rich, I wouldn't stay here. I'd go off into the world. How grand
it must be over there beyond the rainbow."

"One end is quite near us," said Rhoda.

"Are ye looking for a pot of gold, children?" said a voice behind
them. It was the old broom-woman. She had a little house in the woods
and sold brooms for a living.

"A pot of gold!" cried Chrif. "Where is it?"

"It's at the foot of the rainbow," said the broom-woman. "If ye get to
the foot of the rainbow and then dig and dig, ye'll come to a pot of
gold."

"Rhoda! let's go quick!" said Chrif.

"No," said Rhoda, "I ought to weed my flowers."

"Ye must hurry," laughed the old broom-woman. "The rainbow won't stay
for lazy folks."

"I'm off!" cried Chrif; and away he went in search of the pot of gold.
Rhoda watched him out of sight. Then she turned to weed the
boat-garden.

When her grandmother came from the berry pasture, Rhoda told her where
Chrif had gone. "We shall all be rich when he comes back with his pot
of gold," said the little girl.

"He will not find it," said the grandmother. Rhoda, however, was not
so sure.

_Chrif in the New Land_

Chrif ran straight across the fields toward the glowing rainbow. One
end of the lovely arch seemed to touch the top of a distant hill.
Chrif climbed the hill, but the rainbow was no longer there. It rested
on the far side of a valley.