Page:St. Nicholas, vol. 40.1 (1912-1913).djvu/194

102 of great help to me; what can I do to help you?”

“I am glad to have aided you,” said the boy, “but I fear there is nothing you can do to help me. I am journeying far to find a certain kind of leather. This morning I shot my arrow at a tree, but it glanced, and tore a big hole in the wizard shoemaker’s leather apron. I must mend this, or he will do me harm, and to do it I must have a certain kind of leather which neither man can give me, nor woman can give me; so I do not see how I am to get it.”

Then the bat smiled and said: “Perhaps I can help you in that, little brother. Take hold of my wing, shut your eyes, and do just what I tell you.”

This the boy did, and the bat then said: “Pull, little brother; pull as hard as you can!” The boy did, but when he felt the bat’s wing coming off in his hands, he stopped, for he did not wish to injure his friend. But the bat said again: “Pull as hard as you can, I tell you; do not mind me!”

So again the boy pulled, and soon he felt the bat’s wing come off in his hands. Then the bat said: “Open your eyes, little brother, and let us see what we have here.”

To the boy’s astonishment, the bat still had two wings, and in his hand, instead of one of them, was the softest and finest leather he had ever seen, just the kind, he was sure, to mend the wizard shoemaker’s leather apron.

“Thank you, good bat,’ he said, “for giving me this splendid leather.”

But the bat replied: “Thanks should be from me. I should have died without your help, and besides, I go up and down in the world quite a bit, and I have always seen you helping some one; and I am very sure that a boy who helps others deserves help himself.”



So the boy put the leather carefully in his other pocket, and started for the village where he knew the wizard shoemaker was waiting to see him come back unsuccessful. But, running as fast as he could, he paused at a pond where he saw three dragon-flies, one silver, one gold, and one blue in color. Driven by a sudden gust of wind into the water, they were about to drown.