deals with the three brothers after the decree of West Wind has turned
Treasure Valley into a desert. In the little house where they are plying
their trade of goldsmiths, the King of the Golden River appears to Gluck
and tells him the magic secret of turning the river's waters to gold. Hans
and Schwartz in turn attempt the miracle, and in turn incur the penalty
attached to failure. Gluck tries, and wins the treasure through
self-sacrifice. The form of the treasure is a renewal of the fertility of
Treasure Valley, and the moral of the whole story is summed up in
Ruskin's words, "So the inheritance which was lost by cruelty was regained
by love."

It is easy to see that the dramatic part of the story and that which most
pointedly illustrates the underlying idea, is the triple attempt to win
the treasure,--the two failures and the one success. But this is
necessarily introduced by the episode of the King of the Golden River,
which is, also, an incident sure to appeal to a child's imagination. And
the regaining of the inheritance is meaningless without the fact of its
previous loss, and the reason for the loss, as a contrast with the reason
for its recovery. We need, then, the main facts recorded in the first
three thousand words. But the West Wind episode must be avoided, not only
for brevity, but because two supernatural appearances, so similar, yet of
different personalities, would hopelessly confuse a told story.

Our oral story is now to be made out of a condensed statement of the
character of the Valley and of its owners, and the manner of its loss; the
intervention of the King of the Golden River; the three attempts to turn
the river to gold, and Gluck's success. Gluck is to be our hero, and our
underlying idea is the power of love _versus_ cruelty. Description is to
be reduced to its lowest terms, and the language made simple and concrete.