"Ah," he cried at last, "it is useless! we cannot play together." "Ah," wept the butterfly, "we cannot play together." "Boy Blue," said the farmer, brushing aside the long grass, "you were asleep." "Asleep!" said the little boy, jumping up; "I couldn't have been. I heard every word the fish and the butterfly said." The indescribable-- Here it is done; The woman soul Leadeth us upward and on. --_From Goethe's "Faust."_ [Illustration: _By Jules Le Febvre_ LISEUSE] HOW MARGARET LED FAUST THROUGH THE PERFECT WORLD. There was once a very great man who understood all of the most mysterious things in the world. He knew quite perfectly how spiders spun and how the firefly kept his lantern burning. All of these marvelous things were plain to him, for he had read everything that had been written in books, and he had spent his whole life searching and peering through a strange glass at the most wonderful small things. Always and always he was thinking in his heart, "When I know _everything_ then I shall be content, surely!" So he went on searching and looking and reading, night and day, in his dim room. Always he was growing older and wearier, but he did not think of that; he only knew that the strange longing was growing in his heart, and that he was never any happier than before. But he would say to himself, "It is because there is something I have not learned. When I know everything, then surely the joy will come to me." One night he shut his book and laid aside the strange glass, and sat quite still in the dim room. He had found that there was nothing more to be learned; there was nothing of all the mysteries that he did not know perfectly. And behold, the longing was still in his heart, and no gladness came. He only felt how weary and old he was. He thought: "There _is_ no joy in the world; there is nothing good and perfect in the whole world!" He closed his tired eyes and leaned his head back. The lamp burned low, and the place was very still for a long time. And then there suddenly broke the most beautiful music right under his window; children were singing, and men and women, and above it all bells were ringing--wonderful, joyous bells. "Can it be," said the old man--"can it be that anyone is really joyful in the world?" He rose up and went to the window, and thrust back the great curtain. And lo! it was morning! The most beautiful, shining morning; people were pouring out of all the houses, smiling and singing, and bowing to one another; little children were going together with flowers in their hands, singing, and answering the tones of the great bells; and one little child, as it passed, looked right up at the great Doctor Faust, and held out its white lily. The bells chimed, and the singing grew sweeter and clearer. "If there is something joyful in the world, surely some one will tell me," said the man; and he went out into the morning.