bedroom with seven narrow beds in it.
Then she knew it was the right cottage.
Without losing any time, she lighted the
fire and put some water on to boil. When
it was boiling, she throw some rice she
had brought with her into it. She then
went to the next room, made the seven
beds, and swept and dusted everywhere;
but at last hearing footsteps, went to hide.
According to custom, the youngest of the
seven brothers had come to prepare the
morning meal. Great was his astonishment
when he found the fire lighted and
the rice boiled.

"What is this? Are there spirits here?"
he exclaimed aloud; but the little sister
said not a word. She only made herself
smaller in her hiding-place. The other
brothers returned, and found the younger
scared and puzzled. "There are spirits
here. I had no rice, no cheese, no butter.
Yet here is everything prepared."

"Come; let us eat!" cried one, without
attending to him.

"Ay, I am ravenous," said another.
"This soup looks very good," said a
third.

"I tell you," repeated the younger
brother, "that it is none of my cooking.
Stop, stop! Let the cat taste it first."

"Are you mad?" they all cried with
one voice.

"Never you mind," said the lad; and
he took a spoonful of soup and gave it to
the cat. She ate it with great satisfaction,
and seemed much the better for it.
"Now," said he, "you may go on with
your dinner; but I do not like this
mystery."

"Some fairy has taken a fancy to us,"
suggested one.

"I wish she would mend our linen and
sew our buttons on," said another.

"If we had only had a sister!" said the
younger one.

Then they all remained very silent. The
little sister felt very much inclined to
show herself, but did not. When they had
gone, she came out of her hiding-place,
prepared a little dinner for herself, washed
up all the dishes, laid them all in a row,
prepared something for supper, and
returned to her hiding-place. Greater still
was their surprise when they next came
home. Many were their exclamations
They made strange conjectures, but all
very far from the truth. Still, their sister
did not show herself. The provisions she
had brought lasted for three days, and for
nearly three days she managed to avoid
detection; but, on the third day, when she
heard them for the twentieth time regret
that they had no sister, and that they had
left their home and their aged parents;
and when she heard the angry things they
said about their supposed eighth brother,
she could no longer refrain, but rushed
From her hiding-place and threw herself
in their arms. They all wept together
with joy, and with grief. The brothers
were never tired of looking at her, and
of hearing her speak. She then told
them how she had been ill treated on their
account, how their mother had never got
over their flight from home, and how bitterly
she had had to pay for their rash decision.
And now, she said, would they come with
her?

"Yes, they would," they all cried out.
"They would follow the brave sister who
had come so far to seek them, and who had
suffered so much on their account. They
would return to the home they ought
never to have left."

They locked the cottage door, and took
the road that led to their home. There,
the poor mother was ill in bed. She had
been fretting about her daughter; she had
repented heartily of her harshness. Now
that she had no sons and no daughter, it
was better for her to lie down and die.
But when the clatter of many feet was
heard on the staircase, something at her
heart told her these were her children.
Then she wished to live; and her wish was
granted her.

Seven braver labourers or a finer girl
no one could have seen anywhere. There
was great rejoicing in the poor household,
and from that day they were all united and
happy. The brothers sold, with very good
profit, the cottage, and the fields where they
had passed their voluntary exile. They
made their father and mother comfortable
for the rest of their days. Their buttons
never came off. Their linen was always
mended, and their stockings were carefully
darned, by the sister whom they loved to
that degree, that if a king had asked her
to be his bride, they would not have thought
him worthy of her.

   WHY FOXES NEVER CATCH RED COCKS.

THE fox went one day to a hen-roost,
and seized a red cock by the neck. He
bounded away with it.

"Do not squeeze so hard," said the
cock; "you'll have plenty of time to kill
me. Might I be useful in teaching you
to call things by their proper names first?"