Then they all came down on the other side, and the horses trotted faster.  It was early in the morning, and the sunshine was so bright and the air so fresh that the horses tossed their heads, and their hoofs rang out as they hurried over the hard road.

The road ran through the wood, and Joseph could see the maples with their wide-spreading branches, and the poplar with its arms held up to the sky, and the birches with their white dresses, all nodding in the wind, as though they said, “How do you do?” Once, too, he saw a little squirrel running about, and once a queer rabbit.

Then the stage-coach stopped with a jerk.

“What’s the matter?” called Joseph’s papa, as the driver and the guard got down.

“The linch-pin has fallen out,” answered the driver, “and we have just missed losing a wheel.”

“Can we go on?” Joseph asked.  And when his papa said “No,” he felt sorry.  But the guard said that he would go after a wheelwright who lived not far beyond; and Joseph and his papa walked about until the wheelwright came running, with his tools in his hand.

He set to work, and Joseph thought it was very funny that the great wheel could not stay on without the linch-pin; but the wheelwright said that the smallest screws counted.  He put the wheel quickly in order, and off the stage-coach went.

The wheels whirled around all the more merrily because of the wheelwright’s work; and when the hoofs of the horses clattered on the road, Joseph’s papa said that the horse-shoes were saying:—­

“It is the little shoes, the little shoes, that help the horse to go!”

Then Joseph looked down at his own small shoes and thought of his mother’s letter, and the little boy that she needed to hunt eggs and feed chickens and rock the baby’s cradle; and he was anxious to get home.

Clip, clap! clip, clap!  The horses stepped on a bridge, and Joseph looked out to see the water.  The bridge was strong and good, with great wooden piers set out in the water and a stout wooden railing to make it safe.

The sun was high and shining very brightly on the water, and little Joseph began to nod.  He rested his head on papa’s arm, and his eyelids dropped down over his two sleepy eyes, and he went so fast asleep that his papa was obliged to give him a little shake when he wanted to wake him up.

“Wake up, Joseph! wake up!” he cried, “and look out of the window!”

Joseph rubbed his eyes and looked out of the window; and he saw a red cow, a black cow, and a cow with spots on her back; and a little further on, a big boy and a baby; and, what do you think?—­yes, a mamma!  Then the stage-coach could not hold him or his papa another minute, because they were at home!

The GIANT ENERGY & The FAIRY SKILL

    MOTTO FOR THE MOTHER

Greatness is not always largeness.  Help your child to understand, Strength and skill are happy comrades; ’Tis the mind must guide the hand.

Long, long ago, when there were giants to be seen, as they might be seen now if we only looked in the right place, there lived a young giant who was very strong and very willing, but who found it hard to get work to do.