“My son, my dear son!  Do not leave me!”

But, even as he spoke, Iadilla changed into a beautiful Robin Redbreast with soft feathers and strong, firm wings.  And, fluttering up to the ridgepole of the tent, he looked down with pity and tenderness upon the heart-broken chief.

“Do not grieve, father,” he sang.  “I shall be so much happier as a bird, free from human pain and sorrow.  I will cheer you with my merry songs.  Oh, I have been hungry; but now I shall get my food so easily, so pleasantly on mountains and in the fields.  Oh, once I was thirsty; but now the dew is mine and the little springs.  Once I traced my way painfully by forest paths through bog and brake and tangled brier.  But now my pathways are in the bright, clear air, where never thorn can tear nor beast can follow.  Farewell, dear father!  I am so happy!”

He stretched his brown wings as easily as if he had worn them all his life, and, singing a sweet song, fluttered away to the neighboring woods, where he built his nest, and lived happily ever after.

And since that day the glad little Robins have lived as that first one promised, close by the homes of men, and have done all they could to cheer us and make us happy.  For they remember how, once upon a time, their ancestor was a human boy.

THE INQUISITIVE WOMAN

There was once a woman who was so very inquisitive that she wished to know everything.  She was never happy unless she was poking her nose into some mystery, and the less a matter concerned her the more curious she was about it.

One day the Lord gathered together all the insects in the world, all the beetles, bugs, bees, mosquitoes, ants, locusts, grasshoppers, and other creatures who fly or hop or crawl, and shut them up in a huge sack well tied at the end.  What a queer, squirming, muffled-buzzing bundle it made, to be sure!

Then the Lord called the woman to him and said, “Woman, I would have you take this sack and throw it into the sea.  But be sure and do not untie the end of it to look inside; for the sack must on no account be opened, even for a single minute.”

The woman took the sack, wondering very much at the queer size and shape and feeling of it, and especially at the strange noises which came from the inside.

“What can be in the sack?” she said to herself.  “Oh, I wish I knew!  Oh, how I wish I knew!  Oh, how very, very much I wish I knew!” Her curiosity increased every minute as she went step by step towards the sea, until when she had gone scarcely a hundred paces she stopped short and said, “I must know what is inside this sack before I go any farther.  I will take just one tiny little peep, and He will never know it.”

Very carefully she untied the neck of the sack.  Buzz!  Whirr!  Hum!  Zim!  She had opened it but a tiny little crack when out crawled and hopped and flew the millions and swarms and colonies of all kinds of insects, and away they scattered in every direction.  Such a noise as filled the air about the astonished woman’s head!  Such a wriggling and squirming and hopping in the grass about her feet!