Chapter 68
What the Old Man Does Is Always RightI WILL tell you a story that was told me when I was a
little boy. Every time I thought of this story, it seemed to me
more and more charming; for it is with stories as it is with many
people—they become better as they grow older.
I have no doubt that you have been in the country, and
seen a very old farmhouse, with a thatched roof, and mosses and
small plants growing wild upon it. There is a stork's nest on the
ridge of the gable, for we cannot do without the stork. The walls
of the house are sloping, and the windows are low, and only one of
the latter is made to open. The baking-oven sticks out of the wall
like a great knob. An elder-tree hangs over the palings; and
beneath its branches, at the foot of the paling, is a pool of
w
