THE WONDERFUL SECRET.
ONCE on a time there was a king who had a little boy whom he loved very much. So be took a great deal of pains to make him happy. He gave him beautiful rooms to live in, and pictures, and toys, and books without number. He gave him a graceful, gentle pony, that he might ride when he pleased, and a rowboat on a lovely lake, and servants to wait on him wherever he went.
He also provided teachers, who were to give him a knowledge of things that would make him good and great.
But for all this, the young prince was not happy. He wore a frown wherever he went, and was always wishing for something that he did not have. At length, one day, a magician came to the court. He saw the scowl on the boy's face, and he said to the king,—
"I can make your son happy, and turn his frowns into smiles. But you must pay me a great price for telling him the secret."
"All right," said the king; "whatever you ask I will give." So the price was agreed upon and paid, and then the magician took the boy into a private room. He wrote something with a white substance upon a piece of white paper. Next he gave the boy a candle, and told him to light it and hold it under the paper, and then see what he could read. Then he went away.
The boy did as he had been told, and the white letters on the paper turned into a beautiful blue.
They formed these words:— "Do a kindness to some one every day." The prince made use of the secret, and so became the happiest boy in the realm.
The Myrtle.