AND BEHOLD, IT WAS ELLIE ..... Donn P. Crane HOLGER DANSKE ..... Arthur Henderson THE FIGUREHEAD ..... Arthur Henderson "MY DEAR GOOD HUSBAND" ..... Herbert N. Rudeen THE FAIRIES OF CALDON-LOW ..... Iris Weddell White WHO STOLE THE BIRD'S NEST? ..... Herbert N. Rudeen "FATHER, WHO MAKES IT SNOW?" ..... Iris Weddell White "HELLO! I'M WET, LET ME IN" ..... Donn P. Crane "SORRY TO INCOMMODE YOU" ..... Donn P. Crane "PRAY SIR, WERE YOU MY MUG?" ..... Donn P. Crane "THOU HAST HAD THY SHARE OF LIFE" ..... Donn P. Crane HE CAST THE FLASK INTO THE STREAM ..... Donn P. Crane THE DWARF SHOOK THE DROPS INTO THE FLASK ..... Donn P. Crane MORDECAI IN THE KING'S GATE ..... Arthur Henderson HE PUT ON SACKCLOTH AND ASHES ..... Arthur Henderson THEN HAMAN WAS AFRAID ..... Arthur Henderson PLUTO SEIZED PROSERPINA ..... Arthur Henderson IN TIME'S SWING ..... Herbert N. Rudeen SO THE BARGAIN WAS MADE ..... Mildred Lyon AESOP Many centuries ago, more than six hundred years before Christ was born, there lived in Greece a man by the name of Aesop. We do not know very much about him, and no one can tell exactly what he wrote, or even that he ever wrote anything. We know he was a slave and much wiser than his masters, but whether he was a fine, shapely man or a hunchback and a cripple we cannot be sure, for different people have written very differently about him. No matter what he was or how he lived, many, many stories are still told about him, and the greater part of the fables we all like to read are said to have been written or told by him, and everybody still calls them Aesop's fables. Some of the stories told about him are curious indeed. Here are a few of them. In those days men were sold as slaves in the market, as cattle are sold now. One day Aesop and two other men were put up at auction. Xanthus, a wealthy man, wanted a slave, and he said to the men: "What can you do?" The two men bragged large about the things they could do, for both wanted a rich master like Xanthus. "But what can you do?" said Xanthus, turning to Aesop. "The others can do so much and so well," said Aesop, "that there's nothing left for me to do." "Will you be honest and faithful if I buy you?" "I shall be that whether you buy me or not." "Will you promise not to run away?" "Did you ever hear," answered Aesop, "of a bird in a cage that promised to stay in it?" Xanthus was so much pleased with the answers that he bought Aesop. Some time afterward, Xanthus, wishing to give a dinner to some of his friends, ordered Aesop to furnish the finest feast that money could buy. The first course Aesop supplied was of tongues cooked in many ways, and the second of tongues and the third and the fourth. Then Xanthus called sharply to Aesop: "Did I not tell you, sirrah, to provide the choicest dainties that money could procure?"