THE DEAD CANARY
The little yellow canary that used to sing so sweetly grew sick and died. The children wept to see it.
“Let us bury him under the apple-tree,” said Alice; “every spring it will cover his grave with white blossoms.”
So Robert dug a small grave under the apple-tree, and Alice laid the canary gently in it. They covered him with the soft earth.
Every spring the apple-tree sent down his white blossoms on the grave.
THE SWAN’S MEAL
One morning as a shining white swan sailed about on the lake he saw a boy on the bank, eating some bread. He swam over to the boy and thrust out his long white neck toward the bread.
“The beautiful swan wants my bread,” cried the boy. He was delighted.
He broke it and threw it bit by bit on a lily pad. The swan ate it, to the last crumb. Then he bent his head as if to thank the boy, and sailed away.