Chapter II

On Christmas Eve Piccola did not have any stocking to hang up. So she put her little wooden shoe in front of the fireplace.

“I’m sure Santa Claus will not care if it is a shoe,” she said.

The next morning Piccola awoke before it was light. She ran softly to the fireplace to see what was in her shoe.

“Oh, Mother, Mother!” cried the happy little girl. “See what Santa Claus has given me!”

She ran to her mother with the shoe in her hand. A little bird had come down the chimney. There it lay in the shoe, looking up at her with its two bright eyes.

Piccola fed it and warmed it. Then she carried it into the garden to show it to Fred and May.

They gave her candy, and toys, and a doll. But Piccola liked the gift of Santa Claus best of all.

Suggested by CELIA THAXTER’S Poem, “Piccola.”

THE STAR-CHILDREN.

Queen Sunshine lived in a wonderful red and blue castle.

She wore a dress of gold. Whenever she came out from her castle everything became light.

She had many children whom she loved very dearly, and they also wore dresses of gold.

Their good servant, the Moon, who followed after them, wore a dress of shining silver.

In another country across the sea lived Queen Darkness.

She always wore the same black dress. Wherever she went all things became dark.

She was alone and unhappy and often wished that she had children like those of Queen Sunshine.

One day when Queen Sunshine’s children were playing on the seashore, a little boy fell into the water.

“Oh, help me! Help me!” he cried.

One of his sisters tried to help him, and she, too, fell into the sea.

By and by, when the Moon came to take them home, not one child was on the shore. They had all fallen into the water.

The Moon looked at the sea, and saw that it was black.

“Oh!” she cried. “Queen Darkness is there! She has taken all the dear children.”