The Toad-Boy. 189

Go away.” And he walked to the next house.
There, too, he asked the lady if ske did not want
a little boy.

‘‘ No,” said she, “T have already two little boys
of my own.” Then as he turned to leave, she
too saw his face, screamed, and shut the door
quickly.

To the third house he went, and there the lady
had ¢hree boys. But she gave him some bread
and butter and spoke kindly to him. At this
house the lamps were not yet lighted, so that she
could not see his face. He walked away eating
his bread and butter, but with a very heavy heart.
Sitting down by the road-side, he cried bitterly.

‘‘No one wants me,” he sobbed, ‘I have no dear,
kind mamma to love and pet me, and I am afraid
I shall have to become a toad again.” Just then
he heard the sound of an approaching carriage, and
looking up, saw its lamps, shining like two great
eyes in the darkness. In the carriage sat a lady,
who, hearing the child’s cries, stopped and said :

‘What is the matter, little boy? Why don’t
you go home to your mamma ?”’