88 TANGLEWOOD PLAY-ROOM.

small people, skipped three times back and forth over
the top of a chair, in order, as he explained to them, to
set his wits in motion.

“Well, well, children,” said he, after these prelimi-
naries, “since you insist, and Primrose has set her heart
upon it, I will see what can be done for you. And, that
you may know what happy days there were before snow-
storms came into fashion, I will tell you a story of the
oldest of all old times, when the world was as new as
Sweet Fern’s bran-new humming-top. There was then
but one season in the year, and that was the delightful
summer; and but one age for mortals, and that was
childhood.” |

“ LT never heard of that before,”’ said Primrose.

“Of course, you never did,” answered Eustace. “It
shall be a story of what nobody but myself ever dreamed
of, —a Paradise of children, — and how, by the naughti-
ness of just such a little imp as Primrose here, it all caine
to nothing.” : |

So Eustace Bright sat down in the chair which he had
just been skipping over, took Cowslip upon his knee, or-
dered silence throughout the auditory, and began a story
about a sad naughty child, whose name was Pandora, and
about her playfellow Epimetheus. You may read it, word
for word, in the pages that come next.