“What would you like to have more than all else in the world?” whispered the North-wind caressingly.
“The pair of old shoes,” murmured Lars.
The North-wind sighed, and rising in the air with Lars nestling among her tresses, swept over the house-tops, peeking down the chimneys and into cracks and crevices.
And on cold nights when little boys and girls are warm in bed, and they hear the North-wind go sweeping by, they must know that Little Lars is playing on her hair and sighing for “a pair of old shoes.”
CHAPTER XIX.
JOCK O’ THE PIPES.
ONE summer afternoon the Talking Chair told the following story to Aunt Polly, who told it to Dorothy, who told it to me:—
Once upon a time in a bright country lived the most beautiful little queen in all the world. She was called Content, and while she reigned, there was great happiness among her people.
Indeed, they were so very happy that a certain wicked old woman who rides through the air on a broomstick grew very jealous.