down your arms?" The knuckle-bones which I placed before him told him,
"You are but children in comparison with us. Toys like these are the
only playthings you are fit for." The millet that he scattered was an
emblem of the number of soldiers that his master can bring into the
field; but by the hen which ate up the seed he understood that one of
our men could destroy a host of theirs.'

'I do not think,' he added, 'that the emperor will declare war.'

'You have saved me and my honour,' cried the king, 'and wealth and
glory shall be heaped upon you. Name your reward, and you shall have
it even to the half of my kingdom.'

'The small farm outside the city gates, as a marriage portion for my
daughter, is all I ask,' answered the weaver, and it was all he would
accept. 'Only, O king,' were his parting words, 'I would beg of you to
remember that weavers also are of value to a state, and that they are
sometimes cleverer even than ministers!'

(From _Contes Armeniens_. Par Frederic Macler.)

_THE BOY WHO FOUND FEAR AT LAST_

Once upon a time there lived a woman who had one son whom she loved
dearly. The little cottage in which they dwelt was built on the
outskirts of a forest, and as they had no neighbours, the place was
very lonely, and the boy was kept at home by his mother to bear her
company.

They were sitting together on a winter's evening, when a storm
suddenly sprang up, and the wind blew the door open. The woman started
and shivered, and glanced over her shoulder as if she half expected to
see some horrible thing behind her. 'Go and shut the door,' she said
hastily to her son, 'I feel frightened.'

'Frightened?' repeated the boy. 'What does it feel like to be
frightened?'

'Well--just frightened,' answered the mother. 'A fear of something,
you hardly know what, takes hold of you.'

'It must be very odd to feel like that,' replied the boy. 'I will go
through the world and seek fear till I find it.' And the next morning,
before his mother was out of bed, he had left the forest behind him.

After walking for some hours he reached a mountain, which he began to
climb. Near the top, in a wild and rocky spot, he came upon a band of
fierce robbers, sitting round a fire. The boy, who was cold and tired,
was delighted to see the bright flames, so he went up to them and
said, 'Good greeting to you, sirs,' and wriggled himself in between
the men, till his feet almost touched the burning logs.

The robbers s