146 



Charley's \]"ojidc7^ful Journeys. 



sorry for her that he was ahiiost ready to 

 cry, too. At length he said: 



Maid of the Moon, why do you weep? I 

 have brought a flower pot and a message 

 for you from your father." 



"Dear old man!" e.xclaimed she, look- 

 ing up with joyful surprise. She rained 

 tears all the same, but her smile was so 

 bright that her tears looked like many- 

 hued gems as they fell. " Dear old man! " 

 continued she; "let us come to the damask 

 roses. I must weep tears of joy." 



Away they ran to another part of the 

 garden, at which the Maid of the Moon 

 was no sooner arrived than her tears burst 

 forth in a copious shower, and now Charley 

 noticed that as fast as her tears fell flower 

 buds appeared all over the bushes, and 

 grew and burst, until in a few minutes the 

 plot was one mass of brilliant colors, in 

 which the damask far exceeded the green. 



" I always like to come here first when I 

 cry tears of joy, it gives the roses such 

 brilliant hues, and makes them exhale such 

 rich perfume, but now let us go to the car- 

 nations. Dear old father — Oh I'm so glad!" 



" Do 3'ou never stop crying? " asked 

 Charley at length, for he began to think 

 that always crying must be almost as bad 

 as always eating; at least it was not bad, he 

 thought, but still he would not like to live 

 with people that were always crying. 



" Why should I stop crying? " asked she 

 with surprise, and smiling gently on Char- 

 ley through her tears, "If I give vent to 

 my emotions of joy or sorrow my tears 

 make the flowers grow, which makes the 

 moon bright and beautiful. If I cry for 

 sorrow, my tears bring forth such beautiful 

 pure white flowers that my heart is glad, 

 and then I cry for joy, and all the flowers 

 spring up as brilliant-hued as they do 

 now." 



" But what makes you s(jrry? " asked 

 Charley. 



" In the beginning," she said, " when my 

 father sent me here to marry the Man in the 



Moon I was sorry because he would not let 

 me live with him and eat green cheese, and 

 I wandered away here, and sat down, and 

 began to cry bitterly, and all the time I 

 cried the flowers sprang up wherever my 

 tears fell; pure white flowers with delicate 

 perfume; then my heart was glad, and I 

 began to cry for joy, and wherever these 

 tears fell the flowers sprang up brilliant- 

 hued. Then sometimes I felt sorry for the 

 Man in in the Moon that he should spend 

 all his time eating the horrid green cheese, 

 which never satisfied his appetite, but de- 

 prived him of all the pleasures of life, and 

 then when I've nothing else to be sorry for, 

 and shed nothing but tears of joy, all the 

 flowers become bright-colored, and I am 

 sorry to miss my white flowers, and again 

 I cry tears of sorrow. Thank Heaven 

 there is always something to be sorry for. 

 Don't earth children ever weep? " 



"Yes," said Charley, "sometimes; if 

 they're hungry they cry for their supper." 



" Do they? Oh how nice! so do I. I'm 

 getting hungry, too, and I am sure you 

 must be; let us go to the supper garden 

 and cry for supper." 



So saying she took Charley's hand, and 

 led him off to a grove like a plantain grove, 

 and as soon as her tears began to fall the 

 fruit ripened; bananas, mangoes, custard 

 apples, bread fruit, and all sorts of nice 

 fruit, but to Charley's dismay she only 

 ripened one fruit at a time, and ate it as 

 fast as it ripened. 



" There, that's enough," said she at 

 length, " let us go back to my flowers again. 

 I suppose you are not hungry?" 



Charley thought it very unkind of her 

 that she did not give him any of the nice 

 fruit, and when at last she was going away 

 without even thinking of him he could 

 stand it no longer, but burst into tears. 



At once the bananas began to ripen, and 

 when Charley looked up again there was a 

 rich, ripe bunch close to his head, and he 

 took the delicious fruit and ate it with ap- 



