The Pig Brother, and Other Fables and Stories. Richards Laura Elizabeth Howe

said the mother. “But she may be one some day. She is young yet.”

      “I am tired!” said the child. “Will you carry me home, mother?”

      “Why, yes!” said the mother. “That is what I came for.”

      The child put his arms round his mother’s neck, and she held him tight and trudged along the road, singing the song he liked best.

      Suddenly he looked up in her face.

      “Mother,” he said; “I don’t suppose you could be an angel, could you?”

      “Oh, what a foolish child!” said the mother. “Who ever heard of an angel in a blue gingham apron?” and she went on singing, and stepped out so bravely on her lame foot that no one would ever have known she was lame.

      THE APRON-STRING

      Once upon a time a boy played about the house, running by his mother’s side; and as he was very little, his mother tied him to the string of her apron.

      “Now,” she said, “when you stumble, you can pull yourself up by the apron-string, and so you will not fall.”

      The boy did that, and all went well, and the mother sang at her work.

      By and by the boy grew so tall that his head came above the window-sill; and looking through the window, he saw far away green trees waving, and a flowing river that flashed in the sun, and rising above all, blue peaks of mountains.

      “Oh, mother,” he said; “untie the apron-string and let me go!”

      But the mother said, “Not yet, my child! only yesterday you stumbled, and would have fallen but for the apron-string. Wait yet a little, till you are stronger.”

      So the boy waited, and all went as before; and the mother sang at her work.

      But one day the boy found the door of the house standing open, for it was spring weather; and he stood on the threshold and looked across the valley, and saw the green trees waving, and the swift-flowing river with the sun flashing on it, and the blue mountains rising beyond; and this time he heard the voice of the river calling, and it said “Come!”

      Then the boy started forward, and as he started, the string of the apron broke.

      “Oh! how weak my mother’s apron-string is!” cried the boy; and he ran out into the world, with the broken string hanging beside him.

      The mother gathered up the other end of the string and put it in her bosom, and went about her work again; but she sang no more.

      The boy ran on and on, rejoicing in his freedom, and in the fresh air and the morning sun. He crossed the valley, and began to climb the foothills among which the river flowed swiftly, among rocks and cliffs. Now it was easy climbing, and again it was steep and craggy, but always he looked upward at the blue peaks beyond, and always the voice of the river was in his ears, saying “Come!”

      By and by he came to the brink of a precipice, over which the river dashed in a cataract, foaming and flashing, and sending up clouds of silver spray. The spray filled his eyes, so that he did not see his footing clearly; he grew dizzy, stumbled, and fell. But as he fell, something about him caught on a point of rock at the precipice-edge, and held him, so that he hung dangling over the abyss; and when he put up his hand to see what held him, he found that it was the broken string of the apron, which still hung by his side.

      “Oh! how strong my mother’s apron-string is!” said the boy: and he drew himself up by it, and stood firm on his feet, and went on climbing toward the blue peaks of the mountains.

      THE SHADOW

      An Angel heard a child crying one day, and came to see what ailed it. He found the little one sitting on the ground, with the sun at its back (for the day was young), looking at its own shadow, which lay on the ground before it, and weeping bitterly.

      “What ails you, little one?” asked the Angel.

      “The world is so dark!” said the child. “See, it is all dusky gray, and there is no beauty in it. Why must I stay in this sad, gray world?”

      “Do you not hear the birds singing, and the other children calling at their play?” asked the Angel.

      “Yes,” said the child; “I hear them, but I do not know where they are. I cannot see them, I see only the shadow. Moreover, if they saw it, they would not sing and call, but would weep as I do.”

      The Angel lifted the child, and set it on its feet, with its face to the early sun.

      “Look!” said the Angel.

      The child brushed away the tears from its eyes and looked. Before them lay the fields all green and gold, shining with dewdrops, and the other children were running to and fro, laughing and shouting, and crowning one another with blossoms.

      “Why, there are the children!” said the little one.

      “Yes,” said the Angel; “there they are.”

      “And the sun is shining!” cried the child.

      “Yes,” said the Angel; “it was shining all the time.”

      “And the shadow is gone!”

      “Oh, no!” said the Angel; “the shadow is behind you, where it belongs. Run, now, and gather flowers for the littlest one, who sits in the grass there!”

      THE SAILOR MAN

      Once upon a time two children came to the house of a sailor man, who lived beside the salt sea; and they found the sailor man sitting in his doorway knotting ropes.

      “How do you do?” asked the sailor man.

      “We are very well, thank you,” said the children, who had learned manners, “and we hope you are the same. We heard that you had a boat, and we thought that perhaps you would take us out in her, and teach us how to sail, for that is what we wish most to know.”

      “All in good time,” said the sailor man. “I am busy now, but by and by, when my work is done, I may perhaps take one of you if you are ready to learn. Meantime here are some ropes that need knotting; you might be doing that, since it has to be done.” And he showed them how the knots should be tied, and went away and left them.

      When he was gone the first child ran to the window and looked out.

      “There is the sea,” he said. “The waves come up on the beach, almost to the door of the house. They run up all white, like prancing horses, and then they go dragging back. Come and look!”

      “I cannot,” said the second child. “I am tying a knot.”

      “Oh!” cried the first child, “I see the boat. She is dancing like a lady at a ball; I never saw such a beauty. Come and look!”

      “I cannot,” said the second child. “I am tying a knot.”

      “I shall have a delightful sail in that boat,” said the first child. “I expect that the sailor man will take me, because I am the eldest and I know more about it. There was no need of my watching when he showed you the knots, because I knew how already.”

      Just then the sailor man came in.

      “Well,” he said, “my work is over. What have you been doing in the meantime?”

      “I have been looking at the boat,” said the first child. “What a beauty she is! I shall have the best time in her that ever I had in my life.”

      “I have been tying knots,” said the second child.

      “Come, then,” said the sailor man, and he held out his hand to the second child. “I will take you out in the boat, and teach you to sail her.”