se I will go and do it myself.'

"'Oh! on no account,' cried little Hans; and he jumped out of bed,
and dressed himself, and went up to the barn.

"He worked there all day long, till sunset, and at sunset the Miller
came to see how he was getting on.

[Illustration: HANS IN HIS GARDEN]

"'Have you mended the hole in the roof yet, little Hans?' cried the
Miller in a cheery voice.

"'It is quite mended,' answered little Hans, coming down the ladder.

"'Ah!' said the Miller, 'there is no work so delightful as the work one
does for others.'

"'It is certainly a great privilege to hear you talk,' answered little
Hans, sitting down and wiping his forehead, 'a very great privilege.
But I am afraid I shall never have such beautiful ideas as you have.'

"'Oh! they will come to you,' said the Miller, 'but you must take more
pains. At present you have only the practice of friendship; some day you
will have the theory also.'

"'Do you really think I shall?' asked little Hans.

"'I have no doubt of it,' answered the Miller, 'but now that you have
mended the roof, you had better go home and rest, for I want you to
drive my sheep to the mountain to-morrow.'

"Poor little Hans was afraid to say anything to this, and early the next
morning the Miller brought his sheep round to the cottage, and Hans
started off with them to the mountain. It took him the whole day to get
there and back; and when he returned he was so tired that he went off to
sleep in his chair, and did not wake up till it was broad daylight.

"'What a delightful time I shall have in my garden!' he said, and he
went to work at once.

"But somehow he was never able to look after his flowers at all, for his
friend the Miller was always coming round and sending him off on long
errands, or getting him to help at the mill. Little Hans was very much
distressed at times, as he was afraid his flowers would think he had
forgotten them, but he consoled himself by the reflection that the
Miller was his best friend. 'Besides,' he used to say, 'he is going to
give me his wheelbarrow, and that is an act of pure generosity.'

"So little Hans worked away for the Miller, and the Miller said all
kinds of beautiful things about friendship, which Hans took down in a
notebook, and used to read over at night, for he was a very good
scholar.

"Now it happened that one evening little Hans was sitting by his
fireside when a loud rap came at the door. It was a very wild night,