And to this day the inhabitants of the valley point out the place where the three drops of holy dew were cast into the stream, and trace the course of the Golden River under the ground, until it emerges in the Treasure Valley.  And at the top of the cataract of the Golden River are still to be seen two black stones, round which the waters howl mournfully every day at sunset; and these stones are still called, by the people of the valley,

The Black Brothers.

It would be a rather hard thing to choose the very best fairy story, but there are a great many persons who would say that, everything considered, The King of the Golden River is the finest.  Many like The Ugly Duckling, by Hans Christian Andersen, and it certainly is a beautiful story.  We must remember in comparing the two that The Ugly Duckling has probably lost something in being translated into the English, for it is almost impossible to make a translation as perfect as the original.  For the reason just given, perhaps, The King of the Golden River excels as literature, and almost every boy or girl is glad to study the story enough to understand what makes it so very fine.

As soon as we have read it we feel that it is an interesting story, and that we are really the better for reading it.  We cannot follow the fortunes of little Gluck without feeling our hearts grow warmer at his kindly acts, or without knowing that the hospitality, self-denial, sympathy and generosity that he shows are some of the finest traits of human character.  Moreover, we are inspired with the desire to be like Gluck, and to curb any inclination to become like his two dark brothers.

What we wish to do, however, in this brief study, is to try to find some other points less noticeable, perhaps, but equally interesting, in which this story excels many others.  Now, one of these points is the remarkably brilliant way in which things are described by Mr. Ruskin.

We remember that he was a famous English writer who had a very high regard for painting, and who wrote about pictures until he made the world believe many of the sensible things he said.  Naturally, the writer who had such an appreciation for pictures would be particular in description.  In other words, we should expect him to paint for us beautiful word pictures.  In this we are not disappointed, when we reach, for instance, the description of the beautiful morning when Hans started out on his journey to the Golden River.  You will find it in an early part of the third section of the story.

It is not necessary for Ruskin to describe the view that lay before Hans, but his love for the beautiful and his passion for colors made him sketch for us the imaginary beauties that lay before the selfish and avaricious man.  On our part we must try to see the picture as the author saw it when he wrote.