Page:Little Ellie and Other Tales (1850).djvu/83

Rh "Where are your sons?” asked the Prince.

“Stupid questions are not easily answered,” said the woman. “My sons live just as they please; they play at ball with the clouds up there,” and so saying she pointed to the sky above.

“Oh, indeed!” said the Prince, “as to yourself, you speak rather roughly, and are altogether not so gentle as the women that I generally see around me.”

“Yes; they, I suppose, have nothing else to do. I must be harsh, if I am to keep my boys in order: but I can do it, though they have stiff necks of their own! Do you see those four sacks yonder by the wall? they stand as much in awe of them as you once did of the rod on the shelf. I bang them together, let me tell you, and then off they march into the sack; we don't stand on much ceremony here,—there they sit, nor do they come out till I choose to let them. But see, here is one of them!”

With that in came the North Wind. He entered with an icy coldness; large hail