It was late, late, one evening, and little Oscar had not yet gone to
sleep. His mamma stood beside his tiny white bed, and told him ever so
many stories, but still Oscar would not go to sleep. He looked and
looked toward the window, at which a lovely moonbeam was entering, and
which, gliding along the carpet, mounted up to his tiny bed.
"Mamma," said he, after having listened to the wonders of the "Little
Golden Fish" and the "White Fairy," "tell me why the moon shines at
night."
Mamma thought a little, and then replied:
"One day, thousands of years ago, the sun was tired after his long walk,
and unable to go any further, so the Lord said to him, 'Go now, lie down
and sleep; and when thou sleepest all things shall sleep with thee--men
and birds and beasts.' And the sun was going away to sleep when he met
the moon. 'O lovely golden moon,' he said, 'sweet sister mine, will you
do me a favor? Light your lantern, and while I sleep, go softly and with
noiseless steps all over the earth. Peep in at every window, and see if
the children within are good and say their prayers, or if they cry and
keep others from sleeping, but, above all, if they are quiet, and go to
sleep betimes. Then come to me to-morrow morning, and tell me
everything.' And so every evening, when the sun goes to sleep, the moon
walks about, and looks in at the windows everywhere with wide-open eyes.
Then when day is about to dawn, she goes and knocks at the gates of the
sun: 'Tap! tap! tap! Open, dear brother mine; the cranes are flying
through the air, the cocks are crowing, and the bells down below are
ringing in the morning.' Then the sun gets up quickly, and says to the
moon, 'Dear sister, tell me all that has been happening during the
night.' Then the moon tells him everything she has seen in her travels.
If all has been quiet, if no one has been weeping, and especially if the
little children have gone quietly to sleep, the sun will come gayly out
of his palace, all shining with gold and precious stones. But if they
have not been good, he will wrap himself in clouds and mist, make a cold
wind blow, and send down great showers of rain and sleet, and then the
nurses can not take the children out into the gardens to chase the
butterflies."
"Ah," said Oscar, who was a good little boy; and then he closed his
eyes, and went to sleep.
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