FARM-VYARD COCK AND WEATHERCOCK. 229

like a King and a Queen, under the fragrant tree which looked
quite like an elder bush, and he told his old wife of the story of
the Elder Tree Mother, as it had been told to him when he was
quite a little boy, and they both thought that the story in-many
pone resembled their own, and those parts they liked the best
of all.

“Yes, thus it is!” said the little girl in the tree. “Some call
me Elder Tree Mother. others the Dryad, but my real name is
Remembrance: it is I who sit in the tree that grows on and on,
and I can think back and tell stories. Let me see if you have
still your flower.”

And the old man opened his hymn-book: there lay the elde1
blossom as fresh as if it had only just been placed there; and
Remembrance nodded, and the two old people with the golden
crowns on their head sat in the red evening sunlight, and they
closed their eyes, and—and—the story was finished.

The little boy lay in his bed and did not know whether he had
been dreaming or had heard a tale told; the tea-pot stood on
the table, but no elder bush was growing out of it, and the old
man who had told about it was just going out of the door, and
indeed he went.

* How beautiful that was!” said the little boy. “ Mother, I
have been in the hot countries.”

“Yes, I can imagine that!” replied his mother. ‘“ When one
drinks two cups of hot elder tea one very often gets into the hot
countries!” And she covered him up well, that he might not
take cold. “You have slept well while I disputed with him as to
whether it was a story or a fairy tale.”

“ And where is the Elder Tree Mother?” asked the little lad.

“‘She’s in the tea-pot,” replied his mother; “ard there she
may stay.”

THE FARM-YARD COCK AND THE WEATHER-
COCK.

i] HERE were two Cocks—one on the dunghill, the other on
the roof. Both were conceited; but which of the two
effected most? Tellus your opinion ; but we shall keep
our own nevertheless.

The poultry-yard was divided by a partition of boards from
another yard, in which lay a manure-heap, whereon lay and grew
a great Cucumber, which was fully conscious of being a forcing-
bed plant.