She came up with the mirror held fast in her arms, and she thanked the wood-reeve’s son and went home. Now, when in due time came suitors for her hand, the Princess said to each: “How do you like my mirror?” And one after the other they looked in the mirror, and then fled with shrieks of fear. The King and Queen looked in the mirror and beheld only their good and noble faces. “What frightens the Princes, your suitors?” they asked. Then the Princess told them that this was the Mirror of Truth, and that those who looked in it saw their own true natures. “The Princes, my suitors, had wicked hearts,” she said, “and when they saw their true selves they were afraid.” And no good Prince came there to woo, so the years went on and the Princess was still unwed. [Illustration] One day, walking in the forest, the Princess met once again the wood-reeve’s son, but he was grown a man, and as soon as the Princess saw him she loved him. She ran and brought her mirror. “Are you afraid to look in it?” she said. “It is the Mirror of Truth.” “Why should I be afraid?” he asked. And he looked in the mirror, and the Princess, leaning over his shoulder, looked too. He started back with a cry. “I am not like that,” he said. For the mirror had shown him a face like his own but a thousand times more beautiful, for it revealed now the full glory of his noble nature. And as the Princess looked in the mirror she read his inmost heart. “Why, you love me,” she said softly. “I have loved you ever since I first saw you,” he said. And when the King and Queen saw his face reflected in the mirror they said: “Take our daughter, for you alone are worthy of her.” So they were married, and the wood-reeve’s son is King of all the land. _E. Nesbit._ THE LITTLE BOY NEXT DOOR. _THERE_ were once some people who went away to the seaside, and shut up their house and sent away all the servants, and then left the poor flowers in their green-house to die of thirst. The fairies were very sorry for the poor pretty things. “Can’t we help them?” they said, and they flew round the green-house, looking at the flowers through the glass, till at last they found a broken pane in the door. Then the fairies each got a dew-drop and flew in with it, but the poor flowers were so thirsty that the dew-drops were of no use to them. “Oh, dear!” the fairies said, “however can we help them?” They talked and talked, but could think of no way. But the most beautiful of the fairies, who was also the wisest, flew away. “How unfeeling she is!” said the others. Next day the flowers in the green-house drooped more and more, and they were just murmuring “Water” almost with their last breath, when the little boy from next door climbed over the wall. He looked through the glass at the flowers, and then went in and watered them. And this he did every day. “I wonder what made him think of it,” said all the fairies.