Cho-Cho, a tiny Elf, built his house upon the roof of a tall office building in a great city. He chose a sunny corner of the chimney, and there with sticks and strings, brought to him by his friends, the Sparrows, he erected a cozy little Home.
On the outside, it was quite pretty, but after you entered the door and saw the fire on the hearth, and Cho-Cho’s armchair and books beside it, you decided that it was the most charming little house in all that noisy city.
Now within this house was a Magic Window, and from this window Cho-Cho could look into all the homes where Children lived.
Sitting beside the Magic Window one day, Cho-Cho beheld a sight that filled his heart with pity. In a dingy room he saw a thin, pale little Boy, sitting beside a rough table, on which the only food was some cheap buns and coffee. As Cho-Cho looked, he saw the Child try to raise the heavy cup to his lips, but his little hands were far too weak, and it fell with a crash upon the floor, breaking into many pieces, and spilling the coffee. Now this Child loved coffee, because all his life he had been used to drinking it. As he saw the coffee wasted on the floor, he laid his head upon the table and cried and cried and cried. Presently he fell asleep.
As he slept, Cho-Cho stood beside him, and taking his hand, led him far, far away from the great city and all its noise and danger. When the little Boy woke, he was walking down a quiet country road and Cho-Cho was with him. Wild grass and violets grew along this road, and far away on either side stretched fields of lovely clover, whose pink blossoms swayed in the wind.
Passing through a gateway, they entered the field. And now they saw an old farm house surrounded by trees. In the door stood a Sweet-faced Woman, who looked at them with kindly interest.
“Lady,” said Cho-Cho, “this little Boy has no Mother. Will you give him a glass of your good milk? He is very faint.”
Then a strange thing happened. Cho-Cho vanished. He had been standing right beside the little Boy and then suddenly he was gone.
The little Boy began to cry, and the Farmer’s Wife, whose heart was full of love for children, and who had none of her own, gathered him up in her strong arms, and carried him into the large kitchen.
Here she gave him fresh Brown Bread to eat and Milk that was sweet and cool, and he ate and ate, until he could eat no more.