Page 604 - Child's own book

THE KING OF THE SWANS.

T a e rr once lived a little girl named Delphincs who was so
gone! that every one liked her. And close by there lived ano­
ther little girl named Hilda, who also was an exceedingly
good child, and Hilda and Delphine loved one another very
dearly.
Once, in the winter time, when the snow covered the earth,
Hilda became so ill that her parents were very anxious indeed
about her* She could not eat, and at one minute she was burn­
ing with heat, and the next shivering with coid, and though she
was well attended, she did not get better*
And all day long, as she lay in her bed, she would cry,
** Give me some strawberries—who will give me some straw­
berries ? And if her mother said ,D ear child, this Is winter
time : we cannot get yon straw berries,” Hilda would rise up
in heT bed, and say, " Far away yonder I can see a green
bank, and on it (here are plenty of strawberries. Who will
go and fetch one of them for me?— I only want one.'1 And
some children who had come to see her said to one another,
What nonsense poor Hilda is talking ! she must have been
dreaming about (hose strawberries." But Delphine was grieved
for her dear friend, and said, “ Who will go with me to the
mountains, to search for strawberries?1' Then the children
laughed at Iict, and went straight home. So Delphine set out
alone, and took the path that led up the hill through the
forest, and then she went down the hill on the other side* and
came to a place where three paths met. She was undecided
which to choose, and was considering whether to go to the