STORY-TELLING 



5576 



STORY-TELLING 



"Are you a worker of magic," queried the em- 

 peror, "or how have you tamed the most savage 

 beast of the jungle?" 



"Oh, most gracious majesty," replied the slave 

 for he was a learned slave and knew how to 

 speak to an emperor "thou knowest that I es- 

 caped from a most cruel master and fled to 

 Africa. There I hid in a cave on the edge of the 

 desert, and one day there came into my cave a 

 great lion. 



"He whined and held up his paw, and I saw, 

 sticking in it, a long thorn. Because I have al- 

 ways loved animals and cannot bear to see one 

 suffer, I conquered my fear and drew out the 

 thorn, and the beast, after licking my hands, 

 left me. 



"Thou knowest, too, most gracious sire, that I 

 was taken and brought back to Rome, and con- 

 demned to be torn to pieces by a lion. This lion 

 has a better memory than I have I did not rec- 

 ognize him, but he knew me, and has spared my 

 life, as thou hast seen." 



The slave ceased, and the people, who had 

 heard enough to guess at what had happened, 

 sent up a mighty shout. 



"Life and freedom ! Life and freedom for the 

 slave !" they cried. 



And the emperor, to please himself as well as 

 to please the people, said, "So great a marvel 

 has never been seen in Rome. Both are free 

 the lion and the slave and no man may again 

 lay hands on them." 



And with his hand still on the lion's head, the 

 freed slave walked out. 



The Larks in the Cornfield 



Once upon a time there lived in a great big 

 cornfield a happy Lark family a mother Lark 

 and her little baby Larks. It was a beautiful, 

 quiet place to live, but the mother Lark had one 

 worry ; she knew that when the corn was ripe 

 and the reapers came, their sharp scythes and 

 their heavy shoes would hurt the little Larks. So 

 she watched and listened very carefully, and 

 when she had to leave the nest to gather food 

 she told the little Larks to watch and listen very 

 carefully for any sign of the reapers' coming. 



One day she came home and found the little 

 Larks almost fluttering out of the nest in their 

 excitement. 



"Oh, mother, mother," they cried as soon as 

 they could see her. "Take us away, take us 

 away at once. To-day the farmer was walking 

 with his sons in the cornfield, and he said, 'The 

 corn is ripe and must be cut ; let us get our 

 neighbors to help us.' And he told his sons to go 

 at once and ask all the neighbors to come to- 

 morrow and help him reap his corn." 



"Is that all?" laughed the mother Lark. "We'll 

 not move to-day, and you needn't be frightened 

 at all ; for if he waits for his neighbors to come 

 and do his reaping we are safe for some time. 

 Listen carefully to-morrow and tell me what he 

 says." 



The next evening when she came home she 

 found the little Larks chattering and chirping 

 With fear. 



"Mother, dear mother," they cried all together, 

 "you must surely move us now. To-day the 

 farmer walked again in his cornfield, and we 



heard him say, 'This corn is very ripe ; we can- 

 not wait for our neighbors now. Go, my sons, 

 and ask your uncles and your cousins and your 

 grandfathers to come to-morrow and help us cut 

 the corn.' And they went we saw them go. Oh, 

 mother, surely you will move us to-night." 



But the mother Lark only laughed. "No," she 

 said, "we'll not go to-night. We are safe enough 

 yet. The uncles and cousins and grandfathers 

 will be so busy cutting their own corn that they'll 

 not disturb our field for a time. Go to sleep, my 

 babies, but listen carefully to-morrow." 



The third evening the mother Lark came home 

 and the little ones said, "To-day when the farmer 

 came to his cornfield he was quite angry and 

 gruff. 'This corn will be ruined; it's getting far 

 too ripe,' he said, 'we'll wait no longer for our 

 neighbors and our relatives we'll cut the corn 

 ourselves.' And he called his sons and sent 

 them out to hire reapers to come and reap the 

 corn to-morrow. But we weren't frightened, 

 mother, for we know now that he never means 

 what he says." 



"Indeed," said the mother Lark, beginning to 

 bustle about, "he means it this time. When a 

 man attends to his own business instead of wait- 

 ing for someone else to do it, the business gets 

 done. Come, children, we are moving out to- 

 night." 



WINTER STORIES 

 The Ant and the Grasshopper 

 There was once a foolish little Grasshopper 

 that spent all her time playing. Through the 

 long summer and autumn she did nothing but 

 sing from morning till night. So when winter 

 came and the snow covered the ground, she 

 hadn't a morsel of food stored away in her 

 house. 



Soon she was so faint with hunger that she 

 begged her neighbor, the Ant, to give her some- 

 thing to eat. "I am starving," she said ; "give 

 me a grain of wheat." 



"Why did you not save some grain at harvest 

 time?" asked the Ant. "There was plenty to be 

 had. What were you doing?" 



"I was singing," answered the Grasshopper, "I 

 had no time for work." 



"Hoity toity !" cried the Ant ; "if you sang all 

 summer you must dance hungry to bed in win- 

 ter." 



The Fir Tree 



Out in the forest stood a pretty little Fir Tree. 

 It had a good place ; it could have sunlight, air 

 there was in plenty, and all around grew many 

 larger comrades pines as well as firs. But the 

 little Fir Tree wished ardently to become greater. 

 It did not care for the warm sun and the fresh 

 air ; it took no notice of the peasant children, 

 who went about talking together, when they had 

 come out to look for strawberries and raspber- 

 ries. The children often came with a whole 

 basketful, or with a string of berries which they 

 had strung on a straw. Then they would sit 

 down by the little Fir Tree and say, "How pretty 

 and small this one is !" The Fir Tree did not 

 like that at all. 



Next year he had grown bigger, and the fol- 

 lowing year he was taller still. 



