"A burden! Ah, that must be it! Poor things! Poor things!
"I was not near enough to ask them about it, so I still went on thinking. By-and-by two boys came up. They, were very disfigured by their burdens, and yet they seemed not to be troubled about it themselves, but were chatting gaily.
"'We will have a bath in this stream,' they said. So they cast aside their clothes; but, to my horror, I saw that each one carried his burden into the water with him—they could not take them off.
"My heart bled for them; so I drew nearer, and when they came out of the stream I said—
"'Have you no means of laying down those burdens, even for an instant?'
"They laughed carelessly. 'Burdens? Nonsense; we were born as we are, what need to change? We don't care; let us be happy while we can.' They hastened away, and I fell to musing deeply.
"Presently a lovely lady and a girl came in sight, and I noticed at once that the lady appeared to have no burden at all, while the child's was large and heavy.
"'Do not walk on the stones, my dear,' I heard the lovely lady say in a gentle voice, 'you will hurt your feet.'
"'I do not think I shall,' answered the girl, not altering her course.
"'I am sure you will, my dear,' answered her mother—for I took them to be mother and child.