So Bruce went out and gathered his men and told them about the spider and said, “Now, for one more brave effort; for Scotland, and for freedom.” The men cheered as they went into battle and they fought so bravely that the English were defeated and were glad to get back to England with their lives.
And from that day to this, no Scotchman by the name of Bruce will ever hurt a spider.
THE MIRROR
(Adapted from Hans Andersen)
To show that it all depends upon how we look at things.
Once there was a wicked sprite; indeed, he was one of the worst sprites you ever knew. He was always in mischief. One day he was in a fine humor; he had just made a mirror that had the power of changing every lovely thing that looked into it into something hideous, and when anything ugly looked into it, it became ten times worse than it really was.
A beautiful landscape looked like boiled spinach. It made a person appear to stand on his head and sometimes appear as if he had no body at all. The face of a girl looked for all the world like an old potato, and if she had a mole or a freckle it seemed to spread all over her nose and mouth.
This sprite kept a school—a school for sprites, of course—and he showed all the other sprites the mirror and said to them:
“Now you can see what the world and the people really look like.” The sprites took the mirror around and had everybody look in it, and said: