cottage, a great owl flew up to them.

scratch them with his claws.

66

He tried to

I want bread and milk! I want bread and milk!" he screeched.

"I will teach you to be polite," said Daniel, and he struck the owl with his stick and sent him away screeching.

III

When the children reached home and were shaking the snow from their clothes, Anna said, "We have fed a wolf."

"And we gave a bear some milk," said Daniel.

"But the owl got the stick because he was rude!" said Anna.

Then they all sat down to their supper and they shared what was left of the bread and milk. As they were eating, they heard a scratching on the window pane. There stood the wolf and the bear with their forepaws against the glass, nodding most wisely. Behind them, in the darkness, the owl was flying and screeching:

"A whipping- ohoo!

Makes me wise—ohoo! ohoo! ohoo!"

After that there was always enough bread and milk in the poor farmer's house. Year after year his crops grew and brought him more grain than any other farmer in the neighborhood.

The rich farmer grew poorer and poorer. give away too much," said he to his wife. away the beggars."

empty.

"We

"Drive

But his barns remained

"We eat too much," said he. "Let us have only two meals a day." He grew no richer than before.

Then he told his wife to go and ask his poor neighbor how he had prospered so well.

he had heard the story, he said,

When

Wife, there's a sheaf of wheat in the barn. Let us save that for the sparrows next Christmas and begin again."

-ZACHRIS TOPELIUS, translated and adapted by Maria Sandahl

HOW THE GRAY HARE SPENT THE NIGHT

When night came, the gray hare pricked up one ear and listened. He pricked up the other ear, moved his whiskers, sniffed, and sat down on his hind legs.

Then he took a leap or two over the deep snow and again sat down on his hind legs and looked about him.

The hare had to cross the road in order to reach a threshing floor. He stopped near the road.

Men were walking beside their sleighs, and the collars of their coats were raised. The horses jostled under their harness and dived in and out of snowdrifts.

When the sleighs passed by, the hare leaped across the road and softly went toward the threshing floor.

A dog saw him.

A Dog saw the Hare

He began to bark and darted after. The hare leaped over the snowdrifts, but the dog stuck fast in the snow and stopped the chase.

On the way the hare met two other hares. They were feeding and playing.

He played a while with these hares, dug away the frosty snow with them, ate the wintergreen they had uncovered, and went on his way.