The prince told the king all that had happened from beginning to end, and how it really was he who had found the White Bird, the Sword of Brightness, and the Fruit of Happiness. “Yes, yes,” says the king, “that is all very well, but it is just the tale that your brothers tell; now can you draw the Sword of Brightness from the leathern scabbard?” “Oh, yes,” said the prince, “I can do that easily enough.” So the sword was brought and—whisk!—he whipped the blade out of the scabbard so that the light of it dazzled the eyes of everybody that looked upon it. Then the king saw what had happened as plain as the nose on his face, and was for punishing the elder brothers as they deserved, but nobody could find them, for as soon as they heard that the youngest prince had come home again they packed off without waiting to learn more news. And why do I call this the story of the White Bird? Listen: any Tom or Jake or Harry might have found the Sword of Brightness or the Fruit of Happiness; but you may depend upon it that nobody but a real prince could ever have found the White Bird. [Illustration] Ten O’clock· The _Children_ drone [Sidenote: ♓︎] In sing-song tone, The _Master’s_ shoes creak on the _Floor_. They’re baking _Pies_ At _Home_, and _Flies_ [Sidenote: _Good weather for farming._] Buzz in and out the open _Door_. The _Beds_ are made; The _Pans_ are laid Out in the pleasant _Sun_ to dry. Good _Gretchen_ takes Some _Dough_, and makes, For little _John_, a _Saucer Pie_. [Sidenote: KP] [Illustration: How the Good Gifts were used by Two.] X. This is the way that this story begins: Once upon a time there was a rich brother and a poor brother, and the one lived across the street from the other. The rich brother had all of the world’s gear that was good for him and more besides; as for the poor brother, why, he had hardly enough to keep soul and body together, yet he was contented with his lot, and contentment did not sit back of the stove in the rich brother’s house; wherefore in this the rich brother had less than the poor brother. Now these things happened in the good old times when the saints used to be going hither and thither in the world upon this business and upon that. So one day, who should come travelling to the town where the rich brother and the poor brother lived, but Saint Nicholas himself. Just beside the town gate stood the great house of the rich brother; thither went the saint and knocked at the door, and it was the rich brother himself who came and opened it to him.