W. V.

succeeded in locking the bear and tiger up
in the tree and leaving them there to dine
off each other. And all the stories about
little girls who got lost — there were several
of these —were evidently lessons against
fright and incentives to courage and self-
confidence.

W. V. quite believed that if a little girl
got bewildered in the underwood the grass
would whisper “This way, this way!” or
some little furry creature would look up at
her with its sharp beady eyes and tell her to
follow. Even though one were hungry and
thirsty as well as lost, there was nothing to
be afraid of, if there were only oaks in the
Forest. For when once on a time a little
girl—whose name, strangely enough, was
W. V.— got lost and began to cry, did not
the door of an oak-tree open and a little,
little, wee man all dressed in green, with
green boots and a green feather in his cap,
come out and ask her to “step inside,” and
have some fruit and milk? And didn’t he
say, “When you get lost, don’t keep going
this way and going that way and going the
other way, but keep straight on and you are

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