the final reading

The House With Golden Windows, by Laura E. Richards

This is a story told of a young boy who lived with his parents in a cottage on a hillside, overlooking a wide valley. His greatest joy was to sit on the doorstep on simmer evenings, and gaze across the valley to a house miles away on the opposite hillside, for, just as the sun was sinking in the west, the windows of that house would burst into flame, shining dazzlingly with golden light. How perfectly happy the people must be who live there, he thought! One day he packed sandwiches and set off to find the house with the golden windows, but it was farther than he expected, and its was already towards sunset as he climbed steeply uphill. To his disappointment the house was a plain cottage after all, and the windows ordinary windows. The good people there offered him supper, and made up a bed in the kitchen, for it was too late now for him to return. That night, in his dream, he asked directions of a girl about his age. 'The house with the golden windows? Yes, I've seen it.' And she pointed. He woke to the early song of the birds. Drawing the curtain aside he looked out. There far across the valley, was his own house - and, wonder of wonders, its windows flashed with gold in the brightness of the morning sun.