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One evening--it was winter, and the hills and fields were covered with
snow, but the moon shone bright on the frosty windows, and the fire was
burning cheerfully in the grate; it was such an evening when one likes
to enjoy the pleasures of a song or story. You may imagine yourselves on
such an evening seated around the table, something like the knights of
old, whose pleasure it was to relate their wonderful deeds of arms, when
they returned from the "_Holy Land_," or from some noble deed of
knightly prowess; but the stories you shall hear are very different from
those, as the picture you see before you indicates. They are chiefly
stories for children, and are such as relate more particularly to the
affections of the heart. They may be "_Fairy Tales_," or they may be
household narratives of facts, such as occur in the every-day life of a
child. If the moral be good and pure, and the mind interested and made
better, the end is accomplished.




THE TURTLE-DOVES OF CARMEL.


BY MARY HOWITT.

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CHAPTER FIRST.