1876 .] 
AMERICAN AGRICULTURIST. 
887 
One clay the sister was going- away from home ; she was 
afraid to leave her bird. Stephen’s sister had a re¬ 
markable reason for being afraid. This was the reason. 
STEPHEN’S SISTER’S REMARKABLE REASON. 
So Stephen’s sister made Stephen promise that he 
would watch the bird while she tvas gone. Stephen was 
not only a remarkable, but a promising boy, and he 
promised. This is the way that Stephen watched. 
STEPHEN WATCHING THE REMARKABLE BIRD. 
As Stephen watched, he dreamed. He had a remarkable 
dream—strange things happened. Some dreams come 
true. This is what Stephen saw at the end of his dream. 
THE REMARKABLE END OP STEPHEN’S DREAM. 
Tlie Fox, tlie CJoat, and tlie Carrots. 
This is a "fable, translated-from the French. Do yon 
know what a fable is ? The word is sometimes used to 
mean a falsehood or untruth, but it has ■another and a 
better meaning—a short story that is intended to teach 
some good lesson. When your grand-parents were chil¬ 
dren, there were but few books for boys and girls, and 
-dSsop’s fables were then read by young as well as old, 
and very good reading they were. It is not known who 
wrote HDsop’s fables; there was a celebrated writer of 
that name who lived about 600 years B. C., but it is sup¬ 
posed that the fables called his were written by others. 
La Fontaine, a Frenchman, was a writer of charming 
fables, and there have been others in other countries. In 
HUsop’s fables the story is told, and then its meaning 
added in a “moral,” but we think that the story should 
be so well told, that every one who reads it should see 
the moral without being told. We do not know who 
wrote this fable, but it will no doubt remind many a boy 
and girl of times when they have been as foolish as the 
fox and the goat. 
Once a fox and a goat were walking together along a 
road, and saw a sack lying against a hedge. 
“What do you think is inside that sack?” said the 
goat. 
“I will go and see,” replied the fox; and, putting his 
nose into the mouth of the bag, tied tightly by a cord, he 
shook about the bag so much that the string at last gave 
way, and tlie finest carrots one could wish for fell out. 
“They are for me,” said the fox, “for I opened the 
sack.’ 
“ Yes,” said the goat; “but I gave you the idea, and 
if you touch them I will tear your sides with my horns.” 
The fox looked at the goat’s great horns and showed 
his teeth. 
The goat, on seeingthe fox’s teeth, thought within her¬ 
self, “ I don’t much like that kind of weapon.” 
And the fox said to himself, “ I will not expose my 
sides to those terrible horns.” 
After a minute’s silence the fox said: “ Why do we 
stand looking at each other? What is the use of that ? 
Let us see which is the stronger. See, there are two 
heaps of stones. You shall take one and I the other. lie 
who shall first throw down his heap shall eat the carrots.” 
“Very well,” said the goat. So they went to their 
heaps of stones. 
The goat put her legs firmly together, and struck with 
her horns so hard as to make a great noise, but the heap 
did not shake. 
“ Ah ! you do not hit hard enough,” said the fox. 
The goat went three steps backwards, and ran at the 
heap with all her might. But, crack ! her horns broke ! 
When the fox saw that he began to skip about. “ Oh, 
my dear friend,” said he, “ the carrots belong to me now!” 
“Not yet,” said the goat, “.you have not succeeded in 
your task yet. If you touch the carrots, I will tear your 
side with the stumps of my horns.” 
The fox looked at the goat, and said to himself, “She 
has one left still, which is almost whole ; she will tear 
my sides with it.” 
“ Well,” said he, “ I will knock down my heap, then ; 
it is nothing for me.” 
The fox began to dig with his fore-paws until he had 
made a great hole in the ground close to the heap. The 
stones soon fell over into the hole, but, alas ! they fell on 
the fox and broke Ills left paw. 
Then the two looked at one another—the one with her 
broken horns, the other with his broken paw. 
“Run after the carrots,” said the goat, with a sneer, 
“ I will give them up to you.” 
“ I can not,” answered the fox, “ my paw hurts mo too 
much. Take them yourself.” 
“That is just what lam going to do,” said the goat, 
and she ran for the sack; but neither bag nor carrots 
were to be seen : while they were disputing, a man had 
come along and carried all away. 
“Alas!” cried the goat, “how stupid we have been ! 
If we had divided the treasure, we should have kept 
w'hole—I my horns, you your paw, and each of us would 
have had more carrots than we could eat.” 
--- 
Tlie Spring- under tlie "Willow. 
BY I.ILA V. NORTII. 
Once, a long time ago, a little boy named Charlie lived 
with his mother on the side of a green hill. His father 
had been a sailor, and was drowned in a storm at sea, 
leaving his wife and little boy only money enough to 
live on in their little cottage among the trees. Charlie 
was happy all the day long: he loved the trees and 
flowers, and the pretty wild creatures of the woods and 
fields were all his friends ; but best of all he loved the 
spring under the willow. In the hottest summer weather 
the water was always cold, and three times a day Charlie 
went to fill his little pail for himself and his mother. 
One day it was very hot, and the sun poured down its 
heat every moment, while there was no kind cloud to 
shield the poor earth from its rays. Toward noon Charlie 
took his little pail to go for the water. Out from the 
shade of the maples around the house he w r ent, and down 
the long, bare hill-side. Charlie thought there must 
surely be a stone in the crown of his straw hat, it weighed 
so heavily, and the willow, where the spring was, had 
never seemed so far off. He was very glad to get under its 
shade at last, and to find the spring as cool and fresh, as 
though it had never heard of being warm. Charlie 
tossed off his hat, and threw himself down on the mossy 
ground beside the spring. The willow hung over it, 
and shielded it with all its long boughs from the sun, so 
that when Charlie looked in, all he could see at first, 
were the bunches of slender branches, with their long 
leaves, looking like the green hair of the mermaids that! 
his father used to tell about. But after a while his eye 
grew accustomed to the darkness, and then he found he 
could see to the very bottom of the water. And hark! 
what was that; was it the noise of the little brook tumb¬ 
ling over the stones, or was it fairy laughter ? Certain¬ 
ly it must have been laughter, for there, looking up at 
Charlie from the bottom of the spring, was the tiniest, 
brightest, merriest little man in the world. Ho was 
dressed all in green and silver, and for a cap he wore a 
white morning-glory, with a long willow-leaf as a feather. 
“ G'ood morning ! ” he called out to Charlie, laughing 
and nodding, until Charlie could not help laughing too. 
“How did you come there?” asked the astonished 
and delighted little boy. 
“Come here? Why, I live here. I am a water-fairy, 
and I own this spring,” said the little man, and some¬ 
how his voice sounded like the soft, clear noise the 
brook made, as it ran out of the spring, and raced away 
over the pebbles. 
“I should think you would get wet,” said Charlie. 
“Wet! Of course—I want to be wet; it’s dreadful 
to be dry. Come down here, and see how cool it is.” 
It did look cool; the bottom of the spring was silvery 
sand, and the sides were white rocks. No hot sunshine 
found its way down there. 
“ Won’t I be drowned ? ” said Charlie, hesitating. 
“Am I drowned ? ” asked the fairy, dancing about and 
laughing, until he sent several little bubbles up to the 
top of the water. Charlie could not resist; without 
stopping to think twice, he jumped in. To his surprise, 
instead of sinking like a stone, he went down slowly and 
lightly, until he reached the bottom, and instead of be¬ 
ing choked by the water, it seemed to him he had never 
breathed so easily before. His size, too, was greatly 
changed, he was now hardly as ta.l as the water-fairy, 
and was dressed in a suit of green and silver, like his. 
On his head was a morning-glory cap, and the fairy 
picked up a long- willow-leaf irom the bottom of the 
spring, and gave it to Charlie for a feather. 
“ Now I’ll show you something worth seeing,” said 
the merry little man, and taking Charlie by the hand, he 
led iiim through an archway in the side of the spring. 
Through this archway a stream rushed into the spring, 
and after they had ascended a steep place, down which 
it poured, Charlie found from whence it came. They 
were in a rocky cave. Oh, how beautiful it was ! The 
walls and sides shone like diamonds, and in its center a 
beautiful fountain threw its clear water almost up to the 
roof, and from the fountain gushed the stream, which 
led into the spring. Charlie noticed along the sides of 
the cave heaps of what seemed little pearls,yet sparkling 
with colors, which a pearl never had. 
“ These are drops of dew,” said the fairy. “I have 
been gathering them from the spray- of the fountain. 
To-morrow look on the grass, and flowers, and cobwebs, 
and you will see them all.” 
Charlie thought he could have staid listening to the 
fountain for hours, but the fairy led him into another 
chamber, opening from the first. Here the floor was 
covered with little bags, and each bag was labeled with 
the name of a flower. White Clover, Red Clover, Buck¬ 
wheat, Yellow Jessamine, Honeysuckle, Orange Blos¬ 
soms, Charlie saw all these, and many more. “These 
are bags of honey for the flowers,” said the fairy, “as 
soon as a flower opens, I send some one to pour a bag of 
honey into it. The bees know it, and learn to watch for 
the fresh flowers. And now I'll show you something 
still more wonderful.” So he led Charlie into another 
chamber, where there were heaps of jewels of all kinds. 
“ These are for the fishes and insects to -wear,” said he. 
“ I never saw them have any,” said Charlie in surprise. 
“Ah! you don’t look,” said the little man, “that's 
the reason I brought you here.” 
Just then Charlie stopped suddenly, and listened a 
moment. Faint and far away—oh, so far away—he heard 
some one calling “ Charlie ! Charlie 1 ” 
“ I must go,” he said, “ it is my mother.” 
“Oh, wait a moment,” said the fairy. 
“ No—thank you for your kindness, but I must go,” 
he said, and running into the cave of the fountain again, 
he plunged into the stream, and was carried into the 
spring. With all his might he leaped upward, and then 
a mist came over his e’yes, and he knew no more, until 
he waked on the mossy ground, and found his mother 
bonding over him. 
“Whore’s the water-fairy,” said Charlie sitting up. 
“Don’t try to think,” said his mother, “you must 
have had a sunstroke. Do you feel better now ? ” 
“Oh yes,” said Charlie, “but I haven’t had a sun¬ 
stroke, I’ve been down in the spring.” 
His mother did not believe him, but Charlie knew it 
