58 
a poor old woman, who was as young and happy 
as you are, when I first came to this meadow. The 
cottage is old and ruinous now, like herself. She 
used to dance over the grass as gaily as you do, 
and always came to see me every morning, and was 
as happy as I was when my children first grew up 
around me. And then beautiful children grew up 
around her, but they died, one by one, and were laid 
in the ground under yonder hill, where you see those 
little mounds. The poor old lady was then left 
quite alone, for her husband died too, and now she 
looks very sad when she walks in the meadow in 
the spring. Sometimes I hear her wishing that her 
children would come back, every year, as mine do. 
Then she looks up to the sky and seems to be 
talking to them, as if they were there. When she 
comes, we all dance as gaily as we can, to please 
