Best of all, she loves little babies, and often, when the tired mothers sleep, she bends over their cradles, puts her brown, wrinkled face close down to the pillow and looks very sharply.

What is she looking for?

Ah, that you can’t guess unless you know her sad story.

Long, long ago, a great many yesterdays ago, the Babouscka, who was even then an old woman, was busy sweeping her little hut.  She lived in the coldest corner of cold Russia, and she lived alone in a lonely place where four wide roads met.  These roads were at this time white with snow, for it was winter time.  In the summer, when the fields were full of flowers and the air full of sunshine and singing birds, Babouscka’s home did not seem so very quiet; but in the winter, with only the snow-flakes and the shy snow-birds and the loud wind for company, the little old woman felt very cheerless.  But she was a busy old woman, and as it was already twilight, and her home but half swept, she felt in a great hurry to finish her work before bed-time.  You must know the Babouscka was poor and could not afford to do her work by candle-light.  Presently, down the widest and the lonesomest of the white roads, there appeared a long train of people coming.  They were walking slowly, and seemed to be asking each other questions as to which way they should take.  As the procession came nearer, and finally stopped outside the little hut, Babouscka was frightened at the splendor.  There were Three Kings, with crowns on their heads, and the jewels on the Kings’ breastplates sparkled like sunlight.  Their heavy fur cloaks were white with the falling snow-flakes, and the queer humpy camels on which they rode looked white as milk in the snow-storm.  The harness on the camels was decorated with gold, and plates of silver adorned the saddles.  The saddlecloths were of the richest Eastern stuffs, and all the servants had the dark eyes and hair of an Eastern people.

The slaves carried heavy loads on their backs, and each of the Three Kings carried a present.  One carried a beautiful transparent jar, and in the fading light Babouscka could see in it a golden liquid which she knew from its color must be myrrh.  Another had in his hand a richly woven bag, and it seemed to be heavy, as indeed it was, for it was full of gold.  The third had a stone vase in his hand, and from the rich perfume which filled the snowy air, one could guess the vase to have been filled with incense.

Babouscka was terribly frightened, so she hid herself in her hut, and let the servants knock a long time at her door before she dared open it and answer their questions as to the road they should take to a far-away town.  You know she had never studied a geography lesson in her life, was old and stupid and scared.  She knew the way across the fields to the nearest village, but she knew nothing else of all the wide world full of cities.  The servants scolded, but the Three Kings spoke kindly to her, and asked her to accompany them on their journey that she might show them the way as far as she knew it.  They told her, in words so simple that she could not fail to understand, that they had seen a Star in the sky and were following it to a little town where a young Child lay.  The snow was in the sky now, and the Star was lost out of sight.