I.

THE KING'S CHILDREN.

There was once, in Christendom, a little kingdom where the people were
pious and simple-hearted. In their simplicity they held for true many
things at which people of great kingdoms smile. One of these things
was what is called the "Golden Age."

There was not a peasant in the villages, nor a citizen in the cities,
who did not believe in the Golden Age. If they happened to hear of
anything great that had been done in former times, they would say,
"That was in the Golden Age." If anybody spoke to them of a good thing
he was looking for in years to come, they would say, "Then shall be the
Golden Age." And if they should be speaking of something happy or good
which was going on under their eyes, they always said, "Yes, the Golden
Age is there."

Now, words like these do not come to people in a day. And these words
about the Golden Age did not come to the people of that ancient kingdom
in a day. More than a hundred years before, there was reigning over
the kingdom a very wise king, whose name was Pakronus. And to him one
day came the thought, and grew from little to more in his mind, that
some time or other there must have been, and some time or other there
would be again, for his people and for all people a "Golden Age."

"Other ages," he said, "are silver, or brass, or iron; but one is a
Golden Age." And I suppose he was thinking of that Age when he gave
names to his three sons, for he called them YESTERGOLD, GOLDENDAY, and
GOLDMORROW. Sometimes when he talked about them, he would say, "They