They still carry the bucket and the pole, hoping yet dreading to meet
their parents. They fear that their parents think they ran away from
their task. But try as hard as they can, Mani keeps them from finding
the way back to earth.




THE MAN IN THE MOON

_German_


More than a thousand years ago, on a Sunday morning in the early fall,
an old German woodman told his wife, Gretchen, that he was going after
fagots. She begged him not to go, for it was Sunday and they did not
need the wood. The old man only laughed at her, and trudged away into
the forest where no one could see him.

[Illustration: THE MAN IN THE MOON. From an old painting.]

He cut his bundle of fagots, piled them together, tied them with a stout
band, and throwing them over his shoulder, started homeward. Then he
noticed that the wild creatures, that had never stirred as he entered
the woods before, were now afraid of him. The birds fluttered away with
a whirring noise, and an old mother hare, which he knew very well, made
wonderful leaps to get herself and family out of his sight. Even a bear
ran from him, instead of attacking him.

Soon he met a stranger with a sad, stern face, who stopped him.