Queen Puff ends her Story. 151

“When Snowdrop reached the canal and the meadow, Giant
Drubb was still striding forward, looking before him, like a
great many other big people; and perhaps he is still marching
around the world, for Snowdrop saw him no more.

“ How quickly she ran across the meadow to the village!
How gladly the dove mother and Aunt Katrine welcomed her !
Otto was still cross over Snowdrop’s long absence, of whom he
was fond in his way.

“ Next morning he went to his labor in the fields, and Aunt
Katrine stood all the copper pots of the kitchen in a row to be
freshly scoured. At that moment Snowdrop pulled her mother
gently away through the door. Hastily throwing the chain
around the dove mother’s neck, she wished to become a carrier-
pigeon at the same moment, and they rose in the air together.

“Otto was binding sheaves, and did not notice that two
birds hovered overhead. A ring fell before him, and he dis-
covered a pile of gold. He missed wife and child, but the pile
of gold remained.

“They then flew towards the sun and their kindred.

“Aunt Katrine and the village people thought that they

were dead, and had gone to heaven.”

Queen Puff was in high good-humor with herself and the
rest of the company when she had finished her story.

“It comes from the Old Country, and is all the better for
that, to my fancy. Let me hear what your Indian and Yankee
Fairies have to say after the ‘Dove Maiden,”

“ Hoighty-toighty! I could make up a better story with my

eyes shut,” retorted Nip.