but whether they were real princesses, he could not tell. There was always something about them that did not seem quite right. So he came home again and was very sad because he wanted so

much to have a real princess.

One evening a storm came on. It lightened and thundered, and the rain came down in streams; it was a terrible night. All at once there was a knock at the town gate, and the old king himself went to open it. A princess stood outside the gate. But what a sight she was from the wind and rain. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran

in at the toes of her shoes and out at the heels; but she said that she was a real princess.

"Well, we shall soon see if this is true," thought the queen; but she said nothing.

She went into the bedroom, took off all the bedclothes and put a pea upon the bed; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on top of the pea, and then twenty feather-beds on top of the

mattresses. On this the princess had to lie that night.

In the morning they asked her how she had slept. "Oh, not well at all," said the princess, "I have not shut my eyes all night long. Goodness knows what was in my bed. I lay upon something hard so that I am black and blue all over. It was terrible."

Then they knew that she must be a real princess because she had felt the pea through twenty mattresses and twenty feather-beds. No one but a real princess could do that. So the prince took her for his wife; for now he knew that he had found a real princess.

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN.

Boats sail on the rivers,

And ships sail on the seas; But clouds that sail across the sky Are prettier far than these.

There are bridges on the rivers,
As pretty as you please;

But the bow that bridges heaven,
And overtops the trees,

And builds a road from earth to sky,

Is prettier far than these.

CHRISTINA ROSSETTI.

THE FOX AND THE STORK.

The fox and the stork were very good friends.

The fox invited his

friend to dine with

him. The stork was glad to do so. The fox brought in soup in a very shallow dish and invited his friend to help herself.

The fox began to lap up the soup as he could easily do; but the stork with her long bill was unable to drink any of it.

The stork took it in good part, and said the fox must dine with her, which the fox at last agreed to do.

She also brought in soup, but in a long-necked glass, and invited her friend to help himself. The stork with her long bill could drink it easily; but the fox went hungry.

So the stork gave tit for tat.

-AESOP.