“I saw it in my picture book. The leaves the cows get are just the same as those in the kitchen,” he explained none too clearly, but the mother understood him directly. She remembered how interestedly he had looked at the cabbage leaves when the girl had brought them home from market. She also bore in mind a picture in his favorite book, where a stable boy was shown giving a glossy brown cow splendid green leaves to eat. “So you still have the cabbage in your head, Mux?” said the mother. “You must not be dissatisfied when there are so many poor children who have to go hungry. While you get bread and good vegetables, they may be suffering.” “Oh, can’t we send them the rest of the cabbage?” Mux quickly suggested. “Come and work on the embroidery I have started for you, Mux. We shall see who can beat to-day. Perhaps that will clear away your thoughts about the cabbage. Come and sit beside me, Mux.” The mother put a little chair beside hers and placed the work in the boy’s nimble fingers. Now a race with stitches began, and in his zeal to beat his mother he at last forgot the subject that had troubled him so much. The late evening had come and the children’s work for school was done. Mrs. Halm put the big mending basket away and took up her knitting. The time had come, when, clustering eagerly about their mother, the children told her all the troubles and joys of the day. It was the hardest hour of the day for Mux, for it was his bedtime. His mother always took him by the hand, to lead him to bed, before she began to talk with the three elder children. Every evening he put up a fight, for the wily youngster always thought that by obstinate resistance he could break the rule. His mother, however, knew well that his success would only result in dreadful yawns and heavy eyes. This evening he found himself ready for bed before he had had time to prepare for his fight. His mother seemed anxious to have him in bed punctually that night. The boy was always reconciled to his fate when she sat down a moment beside his bed to hear of anything that might be troubling him. Mux, knowing that all conversation was irrevocably closed after his prayers were said, would try every night to prolong this period. After Mux had climbed into bed, he said thoughtfully: “Don’t you think, mother, that if people planted cherries where cabbage now grows everybody could eat cherries instead of cabbage?” “We simply have to stop now, Mux,” Mrs. Halm replied to his astonishment, for he had hoped to start a long conversation. “Well, Mux, you don’t seem to be able to get over the cabbage to-day. Go to sleep, for you have talked enough about it.” Mux knew then that nothing could be done that day, After his evening prayer and a kiss from his mother, he lay down and was fast asleep before his mother had even shut the door.