diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:44 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:20:44 -0700 |
| commit | 170ffb1fc5bc913d0f1a4db7fbee04d5ab75ef95 (patch) | |
| tree | 0b8f327606fc45b65f6a8ec546fc3065a9983098 /3230-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '3230-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/3230-h.htm | 5720 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/bar.gif | bin | 0 -> 8951 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cover.jpg | bin | 0 -> 407347 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf01.gif | bin | 0 -> 47703 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf02.gif | bin | 0 -> 56399 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf03.gif | bin | 0 -> 52021 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf04.gif | bin | 0 -> 39937 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf05.gif | bin | 0 -> 41733 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf06.gif | bin | 0 -> 47795 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf07.gif | bin | 0 -> 48164 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf08.gif | bin | 0 -> 59404 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf09.gif | bin | 0 -> 44413 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/cpf10.gif | bin | 0 -> 30393 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 3230-h/images/fairy.jpg | bin | 0 -> 31425 bytes |
14 files changed, 5720 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/3230-h/3230-h.htm b/3230-h/3230-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f87af43 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/3230-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5720 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=utf-8" /> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Counterpane Fairy, by Katharine Pyle</title> +<link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> +<style type="text/css"> + +body { margin-left: 20%; + margin-right: 20%; + text-align: justify; } + +h1, h2, h3, h4, h5 {text-align: center; font-style: normal; font-weight: +normal; line-height: 1.5; margin-top: .5em; margin-bottom: .5em;} + +h1 {font-size: 300%; + margin-top: 0.6em; + margin-bottom: 0.6em; + letter-spacing: 0.12em; + word-spacing: 0.2em; + text-indent: 0em;} +h2 {font-size: 150%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 1em;} +h3 {font-size: 130%; margin-top: 1em;} +h4 {font-size: 120%;} +h5 {font-size: 110%;} + +div.chapter {page-break-before: always; margin-top: 4em;} + +hr {width: 80%; margin-top: 2em; margin-bottom: 2em;} + +p {text-indent: 1em; + margin-top: 0.25em; + margin-bottom: 0.25em; } + +p.poem {text-indent: 0%; + margin-left: 10%; + font-size: 90%; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +p.center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; } + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Counterpane Fairy, by Katharine Pyle</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Counterpane Fairy</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Katharine Pyle</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: February 4, 2001 [eBook #3230]<br /> +[Most recently updated: August 21, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Laura Gjovaag and David Widger</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY ***</div> + +<h1>THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY</h1> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/fairy.jpg" width="200" height="296" +alt="Picture: The Counterpane Fairy" /> +</div> + +<h2>Written and Illustrated by Katharine Pyle</h2> + +<h5>Published by E.P.Dutton & Co. New York</h5> + +<h5>Copyright E. P. Dutton & Co. 1898</h5> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" +alt="" /> +</div> + +<h2>Contents</h2> + +<table summary="" style=""> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#one">Chapter I. THE PRINCESS OF THE GOLDEN CASTLE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#two">Chapter II. THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#three">Chapter III. STARLEIN AND SILVERLING</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#four">Chapter IV. THE MAGIC CIRCUS</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#five">Chapter V. AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#six">Chapter VI. THE RUBY RING</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#seven">Chapter VII. THE RAINBOW CHILDREN</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#eight">Chapter VIII. HARRIETT’S DREAM</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#nine">Chapter IX. DOWN THE RAT-HOLE</a></td> +</tr> + +<tr> +<td> <a href="#ten">Chapter X. THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY SAYS GOOD-BYE</a></td> +</tr> + +</table> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf01.gif" width="458" height="232" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="one"></a>CHAPTER FIRST.<br/> +THE PRINCESS OF THE GOLDEN CASTLE</h2> + +<p> +Teddy was all alone, for his mother had been up with him so much the night +before that at about four o’clock in the afternoon she said that she was +going to lie down for a little while. +</p> + +<p> +The room where Teddy lay was very pleasant, with two big windows, and the +furniture covered with gay old-fashioned India calico. His mother had set a +glass of milk on the table beside his bed, and left the stair door ajar so that +he could call Hannah, the cook, if he wanted anything, and then she had gone +over to her own room. +</p> + +<p> +The little boy had always enjoyed being ill, for then he was read aloud to and +had lemonade, but this had been a real illness, and though he was better now, +the doctor still would not let him have anything but milk and gruel. He was +feeling rather lonely, too, though the fire crackled cheerfully, and he could +hear Hannah singing to herself in the kitchen below. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy turned over the leaves of <i>Robinson Crusoe</i> for a while, looking at +the gaily colored pictures, and then he closed it and called, +“Hannah!” The singing in the kitchen below ceased, and Teddy knew +that Hannah was listening. “Hannah!” he called again. +</p> + +<p> +At the second call Hannah came hurrying up the stairs and into the room. +“What do you want, Teddy?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Hannah, I want to ask mamma something,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh,” said Hannah, “you wouldn’t want me to call your +poor mother, would you, when she was up with you the whole of last night and +has just gone to lie down a bit?” +</p> + +<p> +“I want to ask her something,” repeated Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“You ask me what you want to know,” suggested Hannah. “Your +poor mother’s so tired that I’m sure you are too much of a man to +want me to call her.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I want to ask her if I may have a cracker,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no; you couldn’t have that,” said Hannah. +“Don’t you know that the doctor said you mustn’t have +anything but milk and gruel? Did you want to ask her anything else?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Teddy, and his lip trembled. +</p> + +<p> +After that Hannah went down-stairs to her work again, and Teddy lay staring out +of the window at the windy gray clouds that were sweeping across the April sky. +He grew lonelier and lonelier and a lump rose in his throat; presently a big +tear trickled down his cheek and dripped off his chin. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear, oh dear!” said a little voice just back of the hill his +knees made as he lay with them drawn up in bed; “what a hill to +climb!” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy stopped crying and gazed wonderingly toward where the voice came from, +and presently over the top of his knees appeared a brown peaked hood, a tiny +withered face, a flapping brown cloak, and last of all two small feet in +buckled shoes. It was a little old woman, so weazened and brown that she looked +more like a dried leaf than anything else. +</p> + +<p> +She seated herself on Teddy’s knees and gazed down at him solemnly, and +she was so light that he felt her weight no more than if she had been a +feather. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy lay staring at her for a while, and then he asked, “Who are +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m the Counterpane Fairy,” said the little figure, in a +thin little voice. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know what that is,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “it’s the sort of a +fairy that lives in houses and watches out for the children. I used to be one +of the court fairies, but I grew tired of that. There was nothing in it, you +know.” +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing in what?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Nothing in the court life. All day the fairies were swinging in +spider-webs and sipping honey-dew, or playing games of hide-and-go-seek. The +only comfort I had was with an old field-mouse who lived at the edge of the +wood, and I used to spend a great deal of time with her; I used to take care of +her babies when she was out hunting for something to eat; cunning little things +they were, — five of them, all fat and soft, and with such funny little +tails.” +</p> + +<p> +“What became of them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, they moved away. They left before I did. As soon as they were old +enough, Mother Field-mouse went. She said she couldn’t stand the court +fairies. They were always playing tricks on her, stopping up the door of her +house with sticks and acorns, and making faces at her babies until they almost +drove them into fits. So after that I left too.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where did you go?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, hither and yon. Mostly where there were little sick boys and +girls.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you like little boys?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, when they don’t cry,” said the Counterpane Fairy, +staring at him very hard. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I was lonely,” said Teddy. “I wanted my mamma.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know, but you oughtn’t to have cried. I came to you, +though, because you were lonely and sick, and I thought maybe you would like me +to show you a story.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean <i>tell</i> me a story?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the fairy, “I mean show you a story. It’s a +game I invented after I joined the Counterpane Fairies. Choose any one of the +squares of the counterpane and I will show you how to play it. That’s all +you have to do, — to choose a square.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy looked the counterpane over carefully. “I think I’ll choose +that yellow square,” he said, “because it looks so nice and +bright.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” said the Counterpane Fairy. “Look straight at it +and don’t turn your eyes away until I count seven times seven and then +you shall see the story of it.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy fixed his eyes on the square and the fairy began to count. +“One—two—three—four,” she counted; Teddy heard +her voice, thin and clear as the hissing of the logs on the hearth. +“Don’t look away from the square,” she cried. +“Five—six—seven” —it seemed to Teddy that the +yellow silk square was turning to a mist before his eyes and wrapping +everything about him in a golden glow. “Thirteen—fourteen” +—the fairy counted on and on. +“Forty-six—forty-seven—forty-eight—FORTY-NINE!” +</p> + +<p> +At the words forty-nine, the Counterpane Fairy clapped her hands and Teddy +looked about him. He was no longer in a golden mist. He was standing in a +wonderful enchanted garden. The sky was like the golden sky at sunset, and the +grass was so thickly set with tiny yellow flowers that it looked like a golden +carpet. From this garden stretched a long flight of glass steps. They reached +up and up and up to a great golden castle with shining domes and turrets. +</p> + +<p> +“Listen!” said the Counterpane Fairy. “In that golden castle +there lies an enchanted princess. For more than a hundred years she has been +lying there waiting for the hero who is to come and rescue her, and you are the +hero who can do it if you will.” +</p> + +<p> +With that the fairy led him to a little pool close by, and bade him look in the +water. When Teddy looked, he saw himself standing there in the golden garden, +and he did not appear as he ever had before. He was tall and strong and +beautiful, like a hero. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Teddy, “I will do it.” +</p> + +<p> +At these words, from the grass, the bushes, and the tress around, suddenly +started a flock of golden birds. They circled about him and over him, clapping +their wings and singing triumphantly. Their song reminded Teddy of the +blackbirds that sang on the lawn at home in the early spring, when the +daffodils were up. Then in a moment they were all gone, and the garden was +still again. +</p> + +<p> +Their song had filled his heart with a longing for great deeds, and, without +pausing longer, he ran to the glass steps and began to mount them. +</p> + +<p> +Up and up and up he went. Once he turned and waved his hand to the Counterpane +Fairy in the golden garden far below. She waved her hand in answer, and he +heard her voice faint and clear. “Good-bye! Good-bye! Be brave and +strong, and beware of that that is little and gray.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy turned his face toward the castle, and in a moment he was standing +before the great shining gates. +</p> + +<p> +He raised his hand and struck bravely upon the door. There was no answer. Again +he struck upon it, and his blow rang through the hall inside; then he opened +the door and went in. +</p> + +<p> +The hall was five-sided, and all of pure gold, as clear and shining as glass. +Upon three sides of it were three arched doors; one was of emerald, one was of +ruby, and one was of diamond; they were arched, and tall, and wide, — fit +for a hero to go through. The question was, behind which one lay the enchanted +princess. +</p> + +<p> +While Teddy stood there looking at them and wondering, he heard a little thin +voice, that seemed to be singing to itself, and this is what it sang: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“In and out and out and in,<br/> +Quick as a flash I weave and spin.<br/> +Some may mistake and some forget,<br/> +But I’ll have my spider-web finished yet.” +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy heard the song, he knew that someone must be awake in the enchanted +castle, so he began looking about him. +</p> + +<p> +On the fourth side of the wall there hung a curtain of silvery-gray spider-web, +and the voice seemed to come from it. The hero went toward it, but he saw +nothing, for the spider that was spinning it moved so fast that no eyes could +follow it. Presently it paused up in the left-hand corner of the web, and then +Teddy saw it. It looked very little to have spun all that curtain of silvery +web. +</p> + +<p> +As Teddy stood looking at it, it began to sing again: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Here in my shining web I sit,<br/> +To look about and rest a bit.<br/> +I rest myself a bit and then,<br/> +Quick as a flash, I begin again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mistress Spinner! Mistress Spinner!” cried Teddy. “Can you +tell me where to find the enchanted princess who lies asleep waiting for me to +come and rescue her?” +</p> + +<p> +The spider sat quite still for a while, and then it said in a voice as thin as +a hair: “You must go through the emerald door; you must go through the +emerald door. What so fit as the emerald door for the hero who would do great +deeds?” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy did not so much as stay to thank the little gray spinner, he was in such +a hurry to find the princess, but turning he sprang to the emerald door, flung +it open, and stepped outside. +</p> + +<p> +He found himself standing on the glass steps, and as his foot touched the +topmost one the whole flight closed up like an umbrella, and in a moment Teddy +was sliding down the smooth glass pane, faster and faster and faster until he +could hardly catch his breath. +</p> + +<p> +The next thing he knew he was standing in the golden garden, and there was the +Counterpane Fairy beside him looking at him sadly. “You should have known +better than to try the emerald door,” she said; “and now shall we +break the story?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, no!” cried Teddy, and he was still the hero. “Let me +try once more, for it may be I can yet save the princess.” +</p> + +<p> +Then the Counterpane Fairy smiled. “Very well,” she said, +“you shall try again; but remember what I told you, <i>beware of that +that is little and gray</i>, and take this with you, for it may be of +use.” Stooping, she picked up a blade of grass from the ground and handed +it to him. +</p> + +<p> +The hero took it wondering, and in his hands it was changed to a sword that +shone so brightly that it dazzled his eyes. Then he turned, and there was the +long flight of glass steps leading up to the golden castle just as before; so +thrusting the magic sword into his belt, he ran nimbly up and up and up, and +not until he reached the very topmost step did he turn and look back to wave +farewell to the Counterpane Fairy below. She waved her hand to him. +“Remember,” she called, “beware of what is little and +gray.” +</p> + +<p> +He opened the door and went into the five-sided golden hall, and there were the +three doors just as before, and the spider spinning and singing on the fourth +side: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Now the brave hero is wiser indeed;<br/> +He may have failed once, but he still may succeed.<br/> +Dull are the emeralds; diamonds are bright;<br/> +So is his wisdom that shines as the light.” +</p> + +<p> +“The diamond door!” cried Teddy. “Yes, that is the door that +I should have tried. How could I have thought the emerald door was it?” +and opening the diamond door he stepped through it. +</p> + +<p> +He hardly had time to see that he was standing at the top of the glass steps, +before —br-r-r-r! —they had shut up again into a smooth glass hill, +and there he was spinning down them so fast that the wind whistled past his +ears. +</p> + +<p> +In less time than it takes to tell, he was back again for the third time in the +golden garden, with the Counterpane Fairy standing before him, and he was +ashamed to raise his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +“So!” said the Counterpane Fairy. “Did you know no better +than to open the diamond door?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said Teddy, “I knew no better.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then,” said the fairy, “if you can pay no better heed to my +warnings than that, the princess must wait for another hero, for you are not +the one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Let me try but once more,” cried Teddy, “for this time I +shall surely find her.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you may try once more and for the last time,” said the fairy, +“but beware of what is little and gray.” Stooping she picked from +the grass beside her a fallen acorn cup and handed it to him. “Take this +with you,” she said, “for it may serve you well.” +</p> + +<p> +As he took it from her, it was changed in his hand to a goblet of gold set +round with precious stones. He thrust it into his bosom, for he was in haste, +and turning he ran for the third time up the flight of glass steps. This time +so eager was he that he never once paused to look back, but all the time he ran +on up and up he was wondering what it was that she meant about her warning. She +had said, “Beware of what is little and gray.” What had he seen +that was little and gray? +</p> + +<p> +As soon as he reached the great golden hall he walked over to the curtain of +spider-web. The spider was spinning so fast that it was little more than a gray +streak, but presently it stopped up in the left-hand corner of the web. As the +hero looked at it he saw that it was little and gray. Then it began to sing to +him in its little thin voice: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Great hero, wiser than ever before,<br/> +Try the red door, try the red door.<br/> +Open the door that is ruby, and then<br/> +You never need search for the princess again.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I will not open the ruby door,” cried Teddy. “Twice have +you sent me back to the golden garden, and now you shall fool me no +more.” +</p> + +<p> +As he said this he saw that one corner of the spider-web curtain was still +unfinished, in spite of the spider’s haste, and underneath was something +that looked like a little yellow door. Then suddenly he knew that that was the +door he must go through. He caught hold of the curtain and pulled, but it was +as strong as steel. Quick as a flash he snatched from his belt the magic sword, +and with one blow the curtain was cut in two, and fell at his feet. +</p> + +<p> +He heard the little gray spider calling to him in its thin voice, but he paid +no heed, for he had opened the little yellow door and stooped his head and +entered. +</p> + +<p> +Beyond was a great courtyard all of gold, and with a fountain leaping and +splashing back into a golden basin in the middle. Bet what he saw first of all +was the enchanted princess, who lay stretched out as if asleep upon a couch all +covered with cloth of gold. He knew she was a princess, because she was so +beautiful and because she wore a golden crown. +</p> + +<p> +He stood looking at her without stirring, and at last he whispered: +“Princess! Princess! I have come to save you.” +</p> + +<p> +Still she did not stir. He bent and touched her, but she lay there in her +enchanted sleep, and her eyes did not open. Then Teddy looked about him, and +seeing the fountain he drew the magic cup from his bosom and, filling it, +sprinkled the hands and face of the princess with the water. +</p> + +<p> +Then her eyes opened and she raised herself upon her elbow and smiled. +“Have you come at last?” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” answered Teddy, “I have come.” +</p> + +<p> +The princess looked about her. “But what became of the spider?” she +said. Then Teddy, too, looked about, and there was the spider running across +the floor toward where the princess lay. +</p> + +<p> +Quickly he sprang from her side and set his foot upon it. There was a thin +squeak and then —there was nothing left of the little gray spinner but a +tiny gray smudge on the floor. +</p> + +<p> +Instantly the golden castle was shaken from top to bottom, and there was a +sound of many voices shouting outside. The princess rose to her feet and caught +the hero by the hand. “You have broken the enchantment,” she cried, +“and now you shall be the King of the Golden Castle and reign with +me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, but I can’t,” said Teddy, “because +—because—” +</p> + +<p> +But the princess drew him out with her through the hall, and there they were at +the head of the flight of glass steps. A great host of soldiers and courtiers +were running up it. They were dressed in cloth of gold, and they shouted at the +sight of Teddy: “Hail to the hero! Hail to the hero!” and Teddy +knew them by their voices for the golden birds that had fluttered around him in +the garden below. +</p> + +<p> +“And all this is yours,” said the beautiful princess, turning +toward him with— +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“So that is the story of the yellow square,” said the Counterpane +Fairy. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy looked about him. The golden castle was gone, and the stairs, and the +shouting courtiers. He was lying in bed with the silk coverlet over his little +knees and Hannah was still singing in the kitchen below. +</p> + +<p> +“Did you like it?” asked the fairy. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy heaved a deep sigh. “Oh! Wasn’t it beautiful?” he said. +Then he lay for a while thinking and smiling. “Wasn’t the princess +lovely?” he whispered half to himself. +</p> + +<p> +The Counterpane Fairy got up slowly and stiffly, and picked up the staff that +she had laid down beside her. “Well, I must be journeying on,” she +said. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, no!” cried Teddy. “Please don’t go yet.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I must,” said the Counterpane Fairy. “I hear your +mother coming.” +</p> + +<p> +“But will you come back again?” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +The Counterpane Fairy made no answer. She was walking down the other side of +the bedquilt hill, and Teddy heard her voice, little and thin, dying away in +the distance: “Oh dear, dear, dear! What a hill to go down! What a hill +it is! Oh dear, dear, dear!” +</p> + +<p> +Then the door opened and his mother came in. She was looking rested, and she +smiled at him lovingly, but the little brown Counterpane Fairy was gone. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf02.gif" width="457" height="265" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="two"></a>CHAPTER SECOND.<br/> +THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF</h2> + +<p> +The next morning when Teddy awoke it was still very early; so early that even +Hannah was not yet stirring. +</p> + +<p> +Outside everything was wrapped in a silvery mist, and now and then a drop of +moisture plumped down on the porch roof. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy lay still for a while, growing wider and wider awake, and then he began +to stir restlessly and wish that his mother would come. After a while he called +her, but the house was so silent that he didn’t like to call very loudly, +and there was no answer. +</p> + +<p> +He thought he would call again, and then suddenly he remembered the Counterpane +Fairy, and wondered if she would like little boys who called their mothers so +early. +</p> + +<p> +He turned over in bed, and raising his knees into a hill stared at the yellow +silk square and thought of the wonderful golden castle where she had taken him +the day before. He wished he knew what all the bird people would have done when +they reached the top of the stairs. He thought they would have put a golden +crown on his head and made him king. +</p> + +<p> +And the princess was so beautiful he longed to see her again. How surprised +Hannah would have been if she had heard voices, and had come up-stairs to see +who it was, and had found the beautiful princess sitting with him, and had seen +the golden crown on his head! If she only knew about it she would never call +him a mischievous boy again. He had done a great deal more than Hannah could. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear, oh dear!” said a little voice just back of his knees; +“almost at the top, anyway.” Teddy knew the voice; it was that of +the Counterpane Fairy, and there was the top of her brown hood showing over his +knees. He watched, breathless with eagerness, until he saw her face appear +above them, and then he cried out: “I wondered whether you would come; +I’m so glad. Are you going to show me another story, and will you stay a +long while?” +</p> + +<p> +The Counterpane Fairy said nothing until she had sat down on top of his knees +for a while and caught her breath, and then she said: “Well, <i>well!</i> +It’s steeper than it was yesterday. I thought I should never get across +that satin square, it was so slippery.” +</p> + +<p> +“Shall I put my knees down?” asked Teddy, moving them. +</p> + +<p> +“For mercy’s sake! no,” said the fairy, clutching at the +quilt. “You might upset me. Keep right still and I’ll show you +another story.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes!” cried Teddy; “please do; and let me go to the +golden castle again.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I can’t do that,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “for +that was yesterday’s story, and this will be another.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what became of the princess?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! she married the hero, of course,” said the fairy. +</p> + +<p> +“But I thought <i>I</i> was the hero.” +</p> + +<p> +“There, there!” said the fairy, impatiently, “I told you that +was yesterday’s story, and if you want to see any more you must choose +another square.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I will,” said Teddy. “May I choose that green +square?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the fairy. “Now fix your eyes on it while I +count.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy began to stare at the green square so hard that he scarcely winked, but +he heard the Counterpane Fairy counting on in her thin little voice until she +reached FORTY-NINE. +</p> + +<p> +The green square spread and grew just as the yellow one had done while she +counted, until Teddy seemed drifting off into endless green spaces. Then the +Counterpane Fairy clapped her hands and he saw that he was hovering over a +grassy hillside. +</p> + +<p> +“Now you are an elf, you know,” he heard the fairy say. +</p> + +<p> +At the bottom of the green hill there was a brook, and at the top was a line of +shady green woods. Overhead the sky was very blue, with shining heaps of +cottony white clouds; a soft wind was blowing, but the sun was warm, and +insects were buzzing past intent on business. A brown bird whirred by and +dropped out of sight among the grasses. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy floated through the air lighter than a feather, and he felt so happy that +he clapped his hands together and turned head over heels in the air. As he came +right side up again he saw a bit of thistle-down drifting on up the hill, and +he was so little that when he flew after it and set himself astride of it, it +seemed as big as a barrel to him. He floated on up the hill with it, and the +wind was like a cushion behind him. +</p> + +<p> +As they reached the edge of the hill the thistle-down caught on a bush, and +Teddy almost has his leg wedged between it and a leaf. He jumped off in a +hurry, and stood looking about him and wondering what he should do next. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly he saw something that made him open his eyes wide in astonishment. +Four large black-and-yellow butterflies were tied to a knot on an old tree +close by, but it was not at the butterflies themselves that he wondered, for he +had often seen them flitting about the fields; it was at the way they were +loaded down with the strangest things: all sorts of fairy household furniture +—little chairs and tables, bedsteads, tiny pots and pans, a great +soup-kettle almost as large as a huckleberry, two thistle-down mattresses, and +a number of other things. All these were very neatly packed and tied between +the butterflies’ wings with spider-web ropes. +</p> + +<p> +In the middle of the knot was a hole, but instead of being round, as a +knot-hole generally is, it was square, and there was a little door fitted into +it. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly this door opened, and on the threshold of it stood a beautiful little +fairy. She stood there looking about, and then she drew from her pocket a +handkerchief, thin and delicate as gossamer, and wiped her eyes. After that she +began to sob, and Teddy knew that what he had thought was the buzzing of a bee +inside the knot had really been the sound of her weeping. +</p> + +<p> +“Hello!” called the elf. +</p> + +<p> +The fairy stopped sobbing and looked about her. When she saw Teddy she stared +at him for a moment and then she began to wipe her eyes and sob again. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy climbed up the branch of a blackberry bush until he was quite close to +the knot-hole, and sat down on the stem and stared at her. “What makes +you cry?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +Still the fairy said nothing, but she folded her little handkerchief, though it +was quite wet, and put it carefully back into her pocket. +</p> + +<p> +Just then in the doorway at her side appeared another fairy. He was quite +different from her, though he, too, was very small. He was as withered as a +dried pea, and looked as though he must be at least a hundred years old. +</p> + +<p> +“Is everything packed up?” he asked in a querulous voice. Then his +eyes fell on Teddy the elf. He scowled until his little pin-pricks of eyes +almost disappeared. “Ugh! there’s one of those nasty gamblesome +elves,” he said. “Now mischief’s sure to follow.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not a gamblesome elf!” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes you are!” said the withered old fairy. “You +needn’t tell me! Look at your red cap and the way your toes turn down. I +say you are a gamblesome elf.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy looked at his toes and sure enough they did turn down. “I wonder if +I am a gamblesome elf,” he thought. +</p> + +<p> +But the old fairy paid no more attention to him. He seemed to be in a great +hurry and very cross. He bustled in and out of the knot-hole, bringing a broom +and an old coat that had been forgotten, and packed them on the butterflies, +and then he helped the lady fairy on to one, and clambered on another himself. +</p> + +<p> +After they were all ready to start he found that he had forgotten to unhitch +the butterflies, and grumbling and scolding he clambered down again and untied +them. Then he climbed back once more, and away they flew down the hillside and +out of sight, the lady fairy weeping all the time as though her heart would +break. +</p> + +<p> +“I wonder what she was crying about,” said the gamblesome elf to +himself, as he stared after them. +</p> + +<p> +“I can tell you that easily enough,” said a little voice so close +to his elbow that it made him jump. +</p> + +<p> +He looked around and saw close to him a brown beetle, sitting on a blackberry +leaf. Teddy looked at the beetle for a while in silence, and then he said, +“Well, why is it they’re going?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s all because of old Mrs. Owl,” said the beetle. +“She and old Father Owl used to live deep in the woods in a hollow tree, +but one time they determined to move out to the edge of the hill, because the +air was better, and what tree should they choose for their home but this very +one where Granddaddy Thistletop has been living as long as I can remember. Then +when the owls were all settled they began to complain. They said that +Granddaddy Thistletop and Rosine were so noisy all day that they couldn’t +sleep. +</p> + +<p> +“After the little owls hatched out it was worse than ever, for the old +mother said that every time Rosine cooked the dinner it made the little owls +sneeze, and so the fairies must go.” +</p> + +<p> +“I wouldn’t have gone,” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes you would,” said the beetle. “The owls could have +stopped up the doors and windows, or they could —well, they could have +done almost anything, they’re so big. You may go in and look at the +house, if you want to. I have to go down the bush and see old Mrs. Ant. +Good-bye! I’ll see you again after a while.” +</p> + +<p> +When the beetle had gone, Teddy climbed up to the knot-hole and went in. There +was a long entry as narrow and dark as a mouse-hole, and with doors opening off +from it here and there. At the end of the hall was a room that must have been +the kitchen. It was very bare and lonely now, and there was a fireplace at one +end with a streak of light shining down through the chimney. +</p> + +<p> +While Teddy was standing by the chimney, he heard a rustling and stirring about +overhead; one of the little owls clicked its beak in its sleep, and he heard a +sleepy, whining voice: “Now just you stop scrouging me. Screecher is +scrouging me!” +</p> + +<p> +Then he heard the Mother Owl: “Hus-s-s-h! Hus-s-s-h! Go to sleep; +it’s broad daylight yet.” After that all was still again. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish,” thought Teddy to himself, “that I could do +something to make the owls go away.” Then he began to giggle to himself, +and put both hands over his mouth so that the owls up above wouldn’t hear +him. +</p> + +<p> +He tiptoed back to the door in the knot-hole, and looked down at a bush with +long thorns on it, that grew close by. “I’ll do it,” he said +to himself; “I’ll break off the thorns and put them in the nest, so +that the owls just can’t stay there.” In a moment he was down on +the bush and tugging at a tough thorn. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as it broke off, he lifted it on his shoulder and clambered up the +rough bark of the tree to the great black hole where the owls lived. When he +looked down into it, there they were in the nest, fluffy and gray, and fast +asleep. Very quietly he slipped down, and set the thorn in the side of the +nest, with the point sticking out. After that, he softly clambered out again. +</p> + +<p> +Up and down, up and down the tree he climbed again and again, carrying thorns +and quietly setting them in the nest, and as he went up and down he kept +whispering to himself: “I’m a gamblesome elf; oh, yes, indeed I +<i>am</i> a gamblesome elf.” +</p> + +<p> +After he thought he had put enough in the nest, he went into old Granddaddy +Thistletop’s kitchen, and, crouching down by the fireplace, he listened. +It was getting to be twilight now, and the owls were beginning to stir. +Presently he heard a voice cry out: “Ouch! Flipperty is sticking his toes +into me.” +</p> + +<p> +“No I ain’t, neither,” said another voice. “It’s +Pinny-winny. There, she’s doing it to me, too. Now just you stop.” +</p> + +<p> +“’Tain’t me,” cried a little squeaky voice; +“it’s Screecher hisself. Ow! Ow! I’m going to tell,” +and she began to cry. +</p> + +<p> +“You naughty little owls,” cried the Mother Owl’s voice, +“what do you mean by digging your little sister?” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t,” cried Screecher and Flipperty, together. +“Ouch! Ouch! There’s something sharp in the nest.” +</p> + +<p> +“My dear,” said old Father Owl’s voice from the branch +outside, “can’t you keep those children quiet?” +</p> + +<p> +“Quiet indeed!” cried old Mother Owl. “Here is the nest all +set full of thorns, and you expect them to be quiet. No wonder the poor +children make a noise. Just you come here and help me get the thorns +out.” +</p> + +<p> +“Thorns!” cried Father Owl. “How did they get in +there?” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s more than I can tell,” said the Mother Owl. +“Perhaps it’s old Granddaddy Thistletop’s doings. I thought +those fairies had gone away, but they must be down there still. I’ll just +fly down and see, and if they are, I’ll make them sorry enough.” +</p> + +<p> +With that, down flew the Mother Owl, and putting one big yellow eye at the +kitchen window, she looked in. “Who-o-o! you fairies,” she cried, +“are you in there still?” +</p> + +<p> +At first, her eye looked so very big and yellow that Teddy was frightened. Then +he remembered that he was a gamblesome elf, so he made a face at her, and began +to hop up and down and twirl about on his toes, singing: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“I won’t go away! I won’t go away!<br/> +I’ll stay all night, and I’ll stay all day.<br/> +Oh, my cap and toes! I’m a gamblesome elf.<br/> +Old owl, you had better look out for yourself.” +</p> + +<p> +The old owl looked in for a moment, and then without a word she flew back to +her nest as fast as she could. Teddy ran over to the chimney and listened. He +heard the old owl brush into the hollow above, and then he heard her saying in +a frightened voice: “Husband, husband, what do you think! A gamblesome +elf has come to live in old Granddaddy Thistletop’s house.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, my tail-feathers!” cried old Father Owl aghast. “This is +bad business; we’ll be having trouble and mischief all the time now. It +would have been better if we had let old Thistletop stay. What shall we +do?” +</p> + +<p> +“Do! do!” cried old Mother Owl in an exasperated voice; “what +is there to do, I should like to know, but to get the children away? I +wouldn’t keep them in the same tree with that gamblesome elf —no, +not a night longer —for all the mice you could offer me.” +</p> + +<p> +“But how can we get them away?” asked old Father Owl. “They +can’t fly.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, we can’t fly!” cried all the little owls. “Oh, +what shall we do? Ow! Ow!” +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t fly! They’ve <i>got</i> to fly,” said Mother +Owl, “and you and I must help them. Back to the old tree we go this very +night.” +</p> + +<p> +After that there was a great to-do up in the hollow. Teddy watched it all lying +on his stomach in the door of the knot-hole, for it was moonlight by this time +and almost as bright as day. +</p> + +<p> +The little owls got up on the edge of the hollow and there they sat, teetering +and flapping and afraid to fly. Their mother grew crosser and crosser, and at +last she got back of them and gave them a push, and then down they went, +fluttering and tumbling and bumping into the tree-trunks. +</p> + +<p> +The Father Owl sailed about from branch to branch, calling, “Who-o-o-o! +Who-o-o! Come on! Spread your wings and go like this. Who-o-o-o!” and +then he would sail on to another bush; but the Mother Owl flew down beside them +and showed them how to spread their wings, and pushed them with her beak, and +gradually the fluttered farther and farther into the darkling woods, their +cries growing fainter and then dying away until all Teddy could hear was the +Father Owl’s voice, very faint and far away. “Who-o-o! +Who-o-o!” Then it too died away, and the woods were still. +</p> + +<p> +After a while the moon set and Teddy began to feel very sleepy. +</p> + +<p> +Then a little breeze sprang up; the light grew clearer and the east was red, +and at last the sun peeped over the top of the hill opposite. +</p> + +<p> +As the first beam struck old Granddaddy Thistletop’s tree, Teddy started +to his knees, gazing out down the hill-slope. There were the four +black-and-yellow butterflies flying directly toward the tree as fast as their +wings could carry them, and on the two foremost ones were old Granddaddy +Thistletop himself and the beautiful Rosine. +</p> + +<p> +They drew rein at the knot-hole, and the old fairy, skipping from his butterfly +and never pausing to fasten it, tottered straight to Teddy and threw his arms +about his neck. “Our preserver!” he cried. “And to think I +should have called you a gamblesome elf! But never mind; I will make it up to +you.” +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly he turned and caught the blushing Rosine by the hand. +“Here!” he cried; “she is yours, and you shall live with us, +and learn to turn your toes up, and we will all be happy together.” +</p> + +<p> +“But —but —” cried Teddy, starting back, +“don’t you know? I’m not an elf at all. +I’m—” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“Well, well! Here we are back again,” said the Counterpane Fairy, +“and stiff enough I feel after all that journeying.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! wasn’t it funny?” said Teddy, and his knees shook with +laughter. “They really thought I was a gamblesome elf.” +</p> + +<p> +“Take care!” cried the fairy. “There you are shaking your +knees again. I think, my dear, that if you were to lower them very, very +carefully, the hill would not be quite so steep.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, ma’am, I’ll be careful,” said Teddy, beginning +very slowly to slide his feet down in the bed. Suddenly, the door-knob turned, +and Teddy gave a start; —quick as a flash the Counterpane Fairy had +disappeared. +</p> + +<p> +His mother was coming in carrying his breakfast and a little vase of violets on +a tray. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, my darling, what a bright, happy face!” she said. “I +think my little boy must be feeling better this morning.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf03.gif" width="455" height="232" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="three"></a>CHAPTER THIRD.<br/> +STARLEIN AND SILVERLING</h2> + +<p> +Mis’ Thomas, Ann McFinney’s downstairs to see you about that sewing +you said she could do for you,” said Hannah, putting her head in at the +door. Mamma was sitting close to the bed playing a game of Old Maid with Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well, Hannah; tell her I’ll be there in a moment,” she +said. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, please don’t go yet,” said Teddy. “It’s my +draw. Match! You’re the old maid. Oh, Mamma! You’re an old +maid!” And he pointed his finger at her and laughed. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, so I am,” said mamma. “Now you can shuffle the cards, +and when I come back we’ll have another game.” +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t stay long,” begged Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” said mamma, and then she +went out. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy lay propped up on the pillow and shuffled and shuffled the cards, and +wished his mother would hurry. He did not like Ann McFinney, for when she came +she always cried, and wiped her eyes on the corner of her apron, and told how +her husband was out of work, and the children needed shoes. +</p> + +<p> +Now it was some time before mamma came back, and when she did she had her +bonnet on. “Darling,” she said, “I have to go out for a +while. Mrs. McFinney’s baby’s sick, and I’ve promised the +poor thing to come over and see it. I won’t be gone long, and when I come +back I’ll bring you a sheet of paper soldiers to cut out.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’d rather have a paper circus,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” said mamma, “I’ll bring you a circus +instead.” Then she gave him some picture-books to look at while she was +out, and kissed him good-bye, telling him to be a good boy. +</p> + +<p> +She went out through the next room, and he heard her pause to wind the +music-box and set it playing. “There,” she called back to him, +“you’ll have the music to keep you company,” and then she +went on down-stairs. +</p> + +<p> +After she had gone Teddy lay fingering the books and not caring to open them, +he knew them so well. “Oh dear!” he sighed, “I wish the +Counterpane Fairy was here!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear, dear, dear! How steep this hill is!” said a little voice +just back of his knees. “Don’t break, me little staff, or down +I’ll go, head over heels to the bottom.” Teddy knew the voice well, +and his heart gave a leap of pleasure. There was the pointed cap and the +withered face of the Counterpane Fairy just appearing above the counterpane +hill. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mrs. Fairy, I’m so glad you came, and I have the loveliest +square picked out!” cried Teddy. “I hadn’t seen it before, +because it was the other side of my knees. It’s that white one with the +silver leaves on it, and my mamma says it was a scrap left from her wedding +dress.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wait, wait,” said the fairy, “till a body gets her breath. +Now which one is it?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s that one,” said Teddy. “Will you tell me about +it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, yes,” said the fairy, “if that’s the one you +want. Now fix your eyes on it while I count.” +</p> + +<p> +Then the Counterpane Fairy began to count. He heard her voice going on and on +and on. “FORTY-NINE!” she cried. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +When Teddy looked about him he saw that he was standing in a long hall of white +marble veined with silver. There were arches and pillars of silver and all the +walls were carved with lilies. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy walked slowly down this hall, and as he walked a rosy glow seemed to move +with him. He looked down to see what made it, and found that he was dressed in +a tunic of rose-colored silk, such as he had never seen before, and it was +fastened about the waist with a golden girdle. His feet were bare, but the air +was so mildly warm that the marble did not chill him. +</p> + +<p> +After a while, as he walked slowly and wonderingly down the hall, he turned a +corner and found himself in another hall just like the first, only at one side +there was a great crystal window, and sitting on a marble seat before it was +the Counterpane Fairy herself. She sat quite still as though she were +listening, and she paid no attention to Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +He was sure it must be the Counterpane Fairy, for it looked like her, though +she was quite large now; she looked as large as a real woman. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy stood looking at her for a while, and waiting for her to see him, but she +paid no attention, and so at last he whispered, “Counterpane +Fairy!” +</p> + +<p> +“Hush!” said she. “I’m listening.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy listened too, and as soon as he did he heard a sound of music like +that of the music-box in the nursery at home, only it was very much clearer, +and sweeter, and fainter. +</p> + +<p> +It seemed to come from outside the crystal window, and looking through it Teddy +saw that outside was the most beautiful garden he had ever seen. The grass of +the garden was a silvery green; and the paths were white. The leaves of the +tress were lined with silver, and the branches hung with shining fruit. There +were lilies growing beside the paths, and in the centre of the garden a +fountain leaped and fell back into a marble basin. The water sparkled as though +it were made of diamonds, and as Teddy listened he knew that the music he heard +was the voice of the fountain. +</p> + +<p> +Presently it ceased and then the fairy turned to him and smiled. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, “may I go out into that +garden?” +</p> + +<p> +“That I don’t know,” said the fairy, “but if you want +to get there the best thing for you to do is find Starlein and Silverling, for +they are the only ones who can show you the way into the garden.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where are they?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t tell you that, either,” said the fairy, “but +they’re somewhere in the halls.” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ll go find them,” cried Teddy, and without waiting any +longer he turned and ran down the hall as fast as he could, he was in such +haste to find them and get them to show him the way into the garden. +</p> + +<p> +On and on he ran, through one hall after another, through arched doorways, and +along echoing corridors, until he felt all bewildered and out of breath. All +the time he was running he seemed to hear the music of the singing fountain in +his ears, but whenever he stopped to listen everything was still. +</p> + +<p> +He was so out of breath that he had begun to walk, when turning another corner +he suddenly saw before him a little girl who he somehow felt sure was Starlein. +</p> + +<p> +Her hair was of a silvery yellow and was like a mist about her head; she was +very beautiful and was dressed from head to foot in silver that shone and +sparkled as she moved. Around her was flying a flock of white doves, and she +was playing with them and talking. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as she saw Teddy she cried out, “Oh, it’s a little +child!” and running down the hall to him, with her doves flying about +her, she put her little hands on his cheeks and kissed him. Then she stood back +and looked at him with her hands clasped. “You dear little boy!” +she said. “Where did you come from?” +</p> + +<p> +“I came through the white square,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know the white square,” said the little girl, +“but I’m glad you came. I haven’t anyone to play with since +Silverling went away.” +</p> + +<p> +“Where has Silverling gone?” asked Teddy. “I must find +him.” +</p> + +<p> +The little girl shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. +“We quarrelled once and he went away. He must be in some of the halls, +but I’ve been hunting and hunting ever since and I can’t find +him.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy told her how the Counterpane Fairy had said that he must find +Silverling and Starlein and that then perhaps he could get into the garden +where the singing fountain was. +</p> + +<p> +The little girl shook her head again. “I am Starlein,” she said, +“but I can’t take you into the garden, because I have never found +the gate into it since Silverling went away,” and she went over and sat +down on a marble bench beside the wall, and all the doves settled about her on +her knees and shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +“Never mind,” cried Teddy, bravely, “you wait here and +I’ll go and find him. I found you and I’ll find him too.” +</p> + +<p> +Turning he ran down the hall and through an arched way into another hall, and +there, far, far down at the other end, he saw a little boy dressed in silver, +who was tossing a silver ball up into the air and catching it again. +</p> + +<p> +When he saw Teddy he slipped the ball into his pocket and ran to meet him, +leaping with delight and clapping his hands. “Oh, little boy! little +boy!” he cried, “will you come and play with me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you Silverling?” cried Teddy, breathlessly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the little boy. +</p> + +<p> +“Then come! come quick!” cried Teddy. “Starlein is just +around the corner, and she is waiting for you to come and show us the way into +the garden where the singing fountain is.” +</p> + +<p> +He caught Silverling by the hand and without another word they ran as fast as +they could up the hall and around the corner, through the silvery archway, and +into the other hall. There Teddy stopped short, looking blankly about him. +Starlein was gone. +</p> + +<p> +Silverling shook his head sadly. “I know how it would be,” he said. +“I’ve been hunting for her ever since we quarrelled, but I +can’t find her, and I can’t find the way into the garden of the +singing fountain either.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did you quarrel about?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“We quarrelled about this,” said the little boy, touching a slender +golden chain that hung around his neck. “We found it in the garden and we +quarrelled about who should wear it, but I’d be so glad to give it to +Starlein now if she would only come back again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, wait!” said Teddy. “She can’t be far away and +I’ll go and find her.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no!” cried Silverling. “You can’t find her, and +I’ll lose you too. Stay here awhile, little boy, and play with me, for +I’m very lonely. Look! Let’s play with my silver ball,” and +taking it from his pocket he tossed it to Teddy. Teddy caught it and threw it +back to him, and so they played together in the marble hall, tossing the silver +ball and shouting with laughter. +</p> + +<p> +At last Silverling missed the ball, and as it rolled on down the hall he ran +after it, stooping and trying to catch it, but always just missing. Teddy +shouted and clapped his hands, jumping up and down with his bare feet, and then +he stood still watching Silverling as he ran far, far down the hall. +</p> + +<p> +As he stood thus, suddenly he heard from just around the corner the cooing of +Starlein’s doves. +</p> + +<p> +He did not stop a moment, but turning ran around into the next hall, and there +sure enough was Starlein with her doves about her. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, little boy!” she cried, “I was afraid I had lost +you.” +</p> + +<p> +But Teddy caught her by the hand. “Come quick!” he cried, “I +have found Silverling.” +</p> + +<p> +They ran together into the hall where a moment ago Silverling had been playing +with the silver ball, but it was vacant now; Silverling was gone. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I never!” said Teddy. Then he turned to Starlein. +“Starlein, you shouldn’t have gone away when I told you not +to.” +</p> + +<p> +“I didn’t,” said Starlein. “I stayed right +there.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy thought awhile. “Then it must have been the wrong hall,” he +said. “But never mind! I’ll find him again, and this time +I’ll surely bring him to you; only wait here no matter how long it +is.” +</p> + +<p> +“Stop! oh, stop!” cried Starlein. She caught one of her doves in +her hands and held it out to Teddy. “Here, little boy,” she said; +“take this with you, and if you can’t find me again, give it to +Silverling and tell him he is to keep it for his very own.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I will,” said Teddy, and he took the dove and put it in the +bosom of his tunic, and it nestled there all warm and soft and still. +</p> + +<p> +Then he turned and walked quietly down the hall and into another. He went on +and on, but he did not run and jump now, for he was thinking. After a while, +when he turned into another hall he once more saw Silverling at play with his +silver ball. +</p> + +<p> +“Did you find her?” cried Silverling, eagerly. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said Teddy, “I found her, and she sent you a dove for +your very own; but, Silverling, I think this. I think the only way for us ever +to find her together is for us to set the dove free, and to follow it when it +flies back to her.” +</p> + +<p> +“But we couldn’t follow it,” said Silverling. “It would +fly so fast that it would be out of sight in a minute.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know,” said Teddy, “but we could tie something to +it.” +</p> + +<p> +“What could we fasten to it?” asked Silverling. +</p> + +<p> +The two little boys stood looking about them and wondering what they could use. +Suddenly Teddy clapped his hands so the dove in his tunic started. +“We’ll fasten the end of your golden chain to it,” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +No sooner said than done. In a moment Silverling had taken the chain from his +neck and unfastened the ends. It was so long that it had been twisted several +times around his neck. Very gently they took the dove and fastened the chain to +its leg, and then they let it go. +</p> + +<p> +It fluttered up over their heads and circled about them once or twice, and then +it flew on down the hall with the little boys following it. +</p> + +<p> +They turned many a corner and went through many a door, and at last they came +into a hall and there —there was Starlein waiting for them with her doves +about her. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Starlein!” cried Silverling. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Silverling!” cried Starlein. +</p> + +<p> +They ran to each other and threw their arms about each other’s necks and +kissed, while the white doves flew circling about them. Then they told each +other how sorry they were that they had quarrelled, and that they would never +do it any more, and then they kissed again. +</p> + +<p> +“And you may have the golden chain, Starlein,” said Silverling. +</p> + +<p> +“No, no! you must keep it,” said Starlein. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I know what we’ll do!” cried Silverling; +“we’ll give it to this little boy, because if it hadn’t been +for him we wouldn’t have found each other.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes!” said Starlein. +</p> + +<p> +But Teddy held up his hand— “Hush!” he whispered; +“don’t you hear it?” +</p> + +<p> +Then they all listened, and sweeter and clearer than ever before they heard the +voice of the singing fountain in the beautiful garden. +</p> + +<p> +“It is the fountain!” cried Starlein and Silverling, half +fearfully. +</p> + +<p> +They each caught Teddy by the hand, and all ran down the hall together, and the +very first corner that they turned they found themselves at the door of the +garden. +</p> + +<p> +The wind was blowing the lilies, the fruit on the wonderful trees shone and +glistened in the sunlight, and the fountain —ah! the fountain was no +longer singing, for the music-box in the nursery had run down. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy looked about him. Instead of the garden there was the flowery India-room. +The clock ticked, the fire crackled; —he was back in bed once more, and +he heard mamma speaking to Hannah in the hall outside, so he knew she was home +again. +</p> + +<p> +“And that is the end of that story,” said the Fairy of the +Counterpane. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf04.gif" width="448" height="202" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="four"></a>CHAPTER FOURTH.<br/> +THE MAGIC CIRCUS</h2> + +<p> +Teddy was still in bed, though the doctor had said that very soon he might have +the big chair wheeled up to the window and sit there awhile. Now he was propped +up against the pillows playing with the paper circus his mother had brought to +him the day before. +</p> + +<p> +His little cousin Harriett had come in yesterday to spend the afternoon with +him, and together they had cut out the figures — the clown, the +ring-master, the pretty lady on the white horse, the acrobat on his coal-black +steed, and all the rest. +</p> + +<p> +This morning he had put some large books under the bedquilt, and smoothed it +over them so as to make a flat plane, and was amusing himself setting the +circus out, and arranging his soldiers in a long procession as if they were the +audience coming to see it. +</p> + +<p> +He seemed so well entertained that his mother said she would go over to the +sewing-room for a little while to run up some seams on the machine. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy was left alone he still went on playing very happily, but as he set +out the soldiers two by two, he was really thinking of the Counterpane Fairy +and her wonderful stories. +</p> + +<p> +The evening before he had fallen asleep while his mother was reading something +to his father (for they both sat in Teddy’s room in the evenings now that +he was ill), and when he woke they were talking together about him. They did +not see that his eyes were open, so they went on with what they were saying. It +was his mother who was speaking. “He’s such an odd child,” +she was saying; “just now he is full of this idea of the Counterpane +Fairy and her stories, and he talks of her just as though she were real. I +don’t know where he got the idea. It isn’t in any of his book and I +thought you must have been telling him about it.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said papa, “I didn’t tell him.” +</p> + +<p> +“Perhaps it was Harriett,” said mamma, and then she saw that he was +awake and began to speak of something else. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy wished his mother could see the Counterpane Fairy herself, and then she +would know that it was a real fairy and not a make-believe. When he saw the +Counterpane Fairy again he was going to ask her if he mightn’t take his +mother into one of the stories with him. +</p> + +<p> +He was thinking of her so hard that it did not surprise him at all to hear her +little thin voice just back of the counterpane hill. “Oh dear, dear! and +the worst of it is that I hardly get to the top before I have to come down +again.” +</p> + +<p> +“Is that you, Counterpane Fairy?” called Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes it is,” said the fairy. “I’ll be there in a +minute;” and soon she appeared above the top of the hill, and seated +herself on it to rest, and catch her breath. “Dear, dear!” she +said, “but it’s a steep hill.” +</p> + +<p> +“Mrs. Fairy,” said Teddy, “I want to ask you something. You +know my mother?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “I know who she is.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said Teddy, “she’s just gone over into the +sewing-room, and I want to know whether you won’t let me take her into a +square sometime.” +</p> + +<p> +“My mercy, no!” said the fairy. “Have you forgotten what I +told you the first time I came?” +</p> + +<p> +“What was that?” +</p> + +<p> +“I told you I went to see little boys and girls. I don’t go to see +grown people. They wouldn’t believe in me.” +</p> + +<p> +“My mother would,” said Teddy. “She plays with me and she +likes my books and I tell her all about you.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no!” cried the Counterpane Fairy, “I couldn’t +think of it. I’m very glad to take you into my stories, but if you +don’t care to go by yourself —” and she picked up her staff +and rose as though she were going. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I do, I do!” cried Teddy. “Please don’t go +away.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I won’t,” said the fairy, sitting down again, +“if you really want me to show you another. Have you chosen a +square?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I haven’t yet,” said Teddy. He looked the squares over +very carefully, and at last he chose the black-and-white one where the circus +was standing. +</p> + +<p> +“Very good,” said the fairy. “Now I’m going to begin to +count.” Teddy fixed his eyes on the square and she commenced. +</p> + +<p> +Gradually he began to feel as though the white silk of the square was a pale +cloudy sky. Before him stretched a white streak, and in the distance were some +things like black squares; he did not know quite what. +</p> + +<p> +“FORTY-NINE!” cried the fairy. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy looked about him he and the Counterpane Fairy were journeying along +a dusty white road together, and the fairy looked just as any little old woman +might, except that her eyes were so bright behind her spectacles. +</p> + +<p> +Before them lay a city with black roofs and spires; there was a sound of drums +and music in the distance, and a faint noise as though a crowd of people were +shouting a great way off. +</p> + +<p> +“What are they doing over there?” asked Teddy, hurrying his steps a +little. “Is it a parade?” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the fairy, “it’s not a parade, but it is a +grand merrymaking, and it’s because of it that I’ve brought you +here. But I’m tired and hungry, for we’ve come a long way, so let +us sit down by the roadside a bit, and while we rest I’ll tell you all +about the goings on and what we have to do with them.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was quite willing, so he and the Counterpane Fairy sat down together on +the soft grass beside the road, with the mild and misty sky overhead, and the +fairy took from her pocket a piece of bread and cheese; she broke it in half +and one part she gave to Teddy. It seemed to him that he had never tasted +anything so good, for, as the fairy remarked, they were both of them hungry. +</p> + +<p> +After they had finished it all to the very last bit, the fairy brushed the +crumbs from her lap, and, sitting there with the soft wind blowing about them +and the black roofs of the city in the distance, the Counterpane Fairy told him +the story of the King of the Black-Country and the Princess Aureline. +</p> + +<p> +“Far off yonder toward the east, where the sky looks so pale and +bright,” began the fairy, “there lives a king, who is called King +Whitebeard, because his beard is as white as snow. He had only one child, a +daughter named the Princess Aureline, and she was as beautiful as the day and +as good as she was beautiful. +</p> + +<p> +“Because she was so good and beautiful princes used to come from all over +the world seeking her hand in marriage, and among them came the King of the +Black-Country, the richest and most powerful of them all. +</p> + +<p> +“The Princess Aureline would have nothing to say to him, however, because +he was wicked as well as rich, so at last the King of the Black-Country +gathered his army together and marching against King Whitebeard he conquered +him and carried off the Princess Aureline captive. +</p> + +<p> +“Now there are great rejoicings in the Black King’s country, but +the Princess Aureline sits and grieves all the time, and nothing the King can +do can make her smile. The more the Black King does, the more she grieves, but +she is so very beautiful that the King would deny her nothing except to let her +go home to her father.” +</p> + +<p> +“I should like to see a princess,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“So you shall,” said the fairy, “for you are a great magician +now, and you have come here to do what no other hero in the world dares to do; +you have come to rescue the Princess Aureline and carry her back to her own +country.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you mean I am a real magician?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, yes,” said the fairy. “Don’t you see you are +dressed in a magician’s robe? And there is your magic-chest on the grass +beside you. Look!” So saying the fairy drew a mirror of polished steel +from under her cloak and held it up before Teddy, and as he looked into it he +hardly knew himself; he was dressed in a black hood, and a long black robe +strangely woven about the hem with characters in white, and he held a white +staff in his hand. Beside him on the grass was a box bound round with iron, and +that was his magic-box. +</p> + +<p> +After he had looked in the mirror for a while the fairy hid it away again under +her cloak. “Now come,” she said, “for it is time we were +journeying on.” +</p> + +<p> +“But what have I in my box?” asked Teddy, as he picked it up and +joined the fairy, who was already hobbling along toward the city. +</p> + +<p> +“Don’t you remember?” said the fairy. “It’s your +circus.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, I remember now,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +After a while he and the fairy reached the city, and everywhere along the +street were people laughing and dancing and feasting, and all the houses were +hung with white and black flags. The black flags were for the King of the +Black-Country, and the white flags were for the Princess Aureline. Everywhere +they came the people made way for them and whispered, “Look! look! That +is the great magician who had come to show his magic before the Princess +Aureline.” +</p> + +<p> +At last they reached an open square, and there was the greatest crowd of all. +On a raised platform covered with silver cloth, and with steps leading up to +it, were two thrones; upon one of the thrones sat a tall, fierce-looking man +dressed in black velvet, and with a crown upon his head cut entirely from one +great black diamond; upon the other throne sat a beautiful young princess. She +was as pale as a lily and as beautiful as the day, and was dressed in +shimmering white. Her hands were clasped in her lap and her face was very sad. +</p> + +<p> +On the steps that led to this platform stood two heralds in black and white +with trumpets in their hands, and all about were ranged soldiers two and two. +They made Teddy think of the toy soldiers he had been playing with, only they +were as big as men, and instead of being gay with red paint they were in black. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Teddy and the Counterpane Fairy appeared in this square, the two +heralds blew a loud blast and come down to meet them. “Make way! make way +for the magician!” they cried, and they escorted him and the fairy +through the crowd to the foot of the steps. +</p> + +<p> +The King of the Black-Country stared at him, and his eyes were so black and +piercing that Teddy felt afraid. +</p> + +<p> +“Are you the great magician?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I am,” answered Teddy, bowing. +</p> + +<p> +“Then let us see some of this magic that we have been hearing +about,” said the King; “and harkye, Magician, if you can make the +Princess smile you shall have whatsoever you wish, even to the half of my +treasure.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy bowed again, and then he set the chest on the ground, and drawing from +his girdle an iron key he unlocked it and put back the lid. There was the paper +circus, just as he and Harriett had cut it out: the acrobat and the lovely +lady, the horses, the clown, the ring-master, — not one of them was left +out. +</p> + +<p> +With his magic wand, Teddy drew upon the ground a circle, and then, while +everybody round craned and stretched their necks to see what he was about, he +took out the figures and set them, one by one, in the ring. Then he waved his +wand over them and cried “Abraca-dabraca-dee!” +</p> + +<p> +All the people stood on tiptoes, and the King himself leaned forward to see, +— but nothing happened. +</p> + +<p> +“Abraca-dabraca-dee!” cried Teddy again. +</p> + +<p> +Still nothing happened; he looked around at the crowd of people, at the +grim-looking soldiers, and the King, and his heart sank. +</p> + +<p> +“Abraca-dabraca-dee!” he cried for the third time, striking the +ground with his wand. +</p> + +<p> +Then a wonderful thing happened. The circle he had drawn upon the ground began +to spread, just as a circle does in the water after one has thrown a stone into +it. Now it was a great circus ring, and the paper circus itself had changed to +a real circus. The clown walked about, joking, with his hands in his pockets; +the ring-master cracked him whip; the paper horses were two magnificent steeds, +one as black as night, and one as white as milk, that cantered round and round, +while the music sounded, and all the people far away on the outside of the ring +clapped and applauded. +</p> + +<p> +“Wonderful! wonderful!” cried the King of the Black-Country. +</p> + +<p> +But now there was something more that was wonderful. As the black horse +cantered round, Teddy ran to him and leaped upon his back, light as a feather, +and there he rode, his black robe with the white figures flying and fluttering +around him. +</p> + +<p> +Then, still riding around, he unfastened his gown and threw it from him, and +there he was dressed in white and silver, and his magic wand was changed to a +little silver whip. +</p> + +<p> +After that he leaped up into the air, and turned a somersault, lighting again +upon his horse, while the music played louder and louder. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy rode round and round, now riding backward, now forward, now on one foot, +now on his hands with his feet in the air. Then he leaped upright, and putting +his fingers to his mouth he gave a shrill whistle. At that the white steed +suddenly dashed into the ring and galloped up beside the black one, and now +Teddy rode with a foot on each. Faster and faster he rode, crying +“Houp-la!” and even the King clapped his hands. Once and twice he +rode round the ring and past the platform, but as they came round for the third +time, Teddy waved his whip in the air. “Houp-la!” he cried. +“Up! up!” +</p> + +<p> +With that his steeds suddenly leaped from the ring and up the steps of the +platform to the very top. There Teddy sprang from them and caught the Princess +Aureline by the hand. “I have come to rescue you!” he cried, and +before the King could move or speak he had set her upon the white horse, he had +sprung upon the black, and with a clatter of hoofs they were dashing down the +steps and across the square. +</p> + +<p> +Then the King of the Black-Country started to his feet. “Stop them! stop +them!” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +The soldiers had been standing as though turned to stone, but at the +King’s voice they started forward, reaching out to catch the bridles of +the horses, but again Teddy raised his magic whip. +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Abraca-dabraca-dee!<br/> +As you were once you shall be!” +</p> + +<p> +h e cried. +</p> <p> +At the magic words every soldier’s arm fell by his side, their eyes +changed to little black dots, their faces grew rounder, their legs stiffened, +and there they stood, nothing more nor less than wooden soldiers just like the +one —<i>were</i> they his own soldiers? And the Princess! Was she only +the doll that Harriett had forgotten the night before and that Teddy had set up +against his knees to watch the show? Were the streets only black and white +silk? +</p> + +<p> +There he was, back in his own room with the little wooden soldiers and the +paper circus. There was the square of silk with the book under it, and the +Counterpane Fairy sitting on his knees. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! but, Counterpane Fairy,” cried Teddy, “what became of +us? Did we get away? Oh, I didn’t want to come out of the story just +yet!” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, of course you escaped,” said the fairy. “How could the +King stop you after you had changed his soldiers into wood?” +</p> + +<p> +“And what became of you?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I took the clown’s cap,” said the fairy, “for it +was the wishing-cap, and fast as you and the Princess rode back to the country +of King Whitebeard I was there before you.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy thought for a while and then he heaved a deep sigh. “I wish I +really had a circus horse,” he said, “and could ride round and have +all the people watching and shouting. But what did the Princess say when she +found I had rescued her?” +</p> + +<p> +“Hark!” said the fairy, “isn’t that your mother coming +along the hall? I must be going. Oh, my poor bones! What a hill it is to go +down! Oh dear, dear, dear!” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf05.gif" width="449" height="230" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="five"></a>CHAPTER FIFTH.<br/> +AT THE EDGE OF THE POLAR SEA</h2> + +<p> +The crocuses are up on the lawn,” said Teddy’s mother, who was +standing at the window and looking out. “And just hear that blackbird! I +always feel as though spring were really here when I hear the blackbirds +sing.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was still in bed. It seemed to him sometimes that he had spent his whole +life lying there in the India-room, under the silk counterpane, and that it was +some other Teddy who used to go to school and shout and play with the boys in +the street. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I could go out-of-doors the way I used to,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“So do I,” said mamma. “But never mind, darling. The doctor +says it won’t be so very long now before you can be out again, and this +afternoon we’ll play some nice game or other that you can play in bed. +Now what would you like it to be?” But before Teddy could answer she +added, “Oh dear! There comes Aunt Mariah.” +</p> + +<p> +Aunt Mariah lived down at the other end of the village, and she generally came +every fortnight to spend an afternoon with Teddy’s mother. She always +brought her knitting in a bag, and a white net cap that she put on before the +glass as soon as she had taken her bonnet off. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy liked to have her come, her needles flew so fast, and she used to recite +to him, — +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“A was an archer, and shot at a frog;<br/> +B was a butcher, and had a great dog.” +</p> + +<p> +Then when he was tired of sitting with her and mamma, he could run out-of-doors +and play. +</p> + +<p> +But he found it was different to-day from what it had been before. He was still +weak from his illness, and after she had told him all the verses that she knew, +he grew weary of hearing her talk of Cousin George’s wife, and Mrs. +Appleby’s rheumatism. +</p> + +<p> +His mother saw that he was growing restless and that his cheeks were flushed, +so she asked Aunt Mariah to come over to her room to look at some calico she +had been buying. +</p> + +<p> +When they had gone Teddy lay for a time enjoying the silence of the room, but +after a while it began to seem too still and the clock ticked with a strange +loud sound. He wished Aunt Mariah would go away and let mamma come back again. +It was so lonely, and he was tired of his books. +</p> + +<p> +He was lying on his back, and presently he drew up his knees, and then over the +tops of them he could only see the upper half of the window, and the tips of +the pine-trees against the still blue sky outside. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear, dear, dear!” said the Counterpane Fairy’s voice +just behind the hill. “Steeper than ever to-day. Will I ever get to the +top?” A minute after he saw her little figure standing on the hill, dark +against the sky, and the staff in her hand like a thin black line. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, dear Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, “have you come to +show me another story?” +</p> + +<p> +“Are you sure you want to see one?” asked the Counterpane Fairy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes, yes, I do!” cried Teddy. “Your stories don’t +make me feel tired the way Aunt Mariah’s do.” +</p> + +<p> +The fairy shook her head. “I thought her stories were very +pleasant,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“So they are,” said Teddy, “but I like her stories best when +I’m all well, and I like your stories best when I’m sick. Besides I +only hear her stories and I see yours.” +</p> + +<p> +The fairy smiled. “Well, then, which square will you choose this +time?” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“I think I would like that one,” said Teddy, pointing to a square +of watered ribbon that shaded from white to a sea-green. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s rather a long story,” said the fairy, doubtfully. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, please show it!” begged Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said the Fairy, “fix your eyes on it while I +count.” +</p> + +<p> +Then she began and he heard her voice going on and on. +“FORTY-NINE!” she cried. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Teddy was floating on a block of ice across the wide, green Polar sea. The +Counterpane Fairy was with him, and all around were great fields of ice and +floating white bergs. The air was very still and cold, but Teddy liked it all +the better for that, for now he was an ice-fairy. He was dressed from head to +foot in a suit that shone and sparkled like woven frost, and in his belt was a +knife as shining as an icicle. Something kept bobbing and tickling his +forehead, and when he caught hold of it he found it was the end of the long cap +he wore. +</p> + +<p> +As they drifted along, sometimes they saw a walrus with long tusks lying on the +ice, or a soft-eyed seal. Once some strange little beings that looked like +dwarfs, with goggle eyes and straggling black hair, caught hold of the block of +ice, and lifting themselves out of the water made faces at Teddy, but the +moment they saw the Counterpane Fairy their looked changed to one of fear, and +with a queer gurgling cry they dropped from the ice and were gone. +</p> + +<p> +“What were those things?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“They were ice-mermen,” said the Counterpane Fairy. “Naughty, +mischievous things they are. I’d like to pack them all off to the North +Pole if I could.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, look! look!” cried Teddy. “Just look at those little +bears playing over there.” +</p> + +<p> +They had drifted in quite near to the shore, and in among the blocks of ice +three white bear cubs were playing together like fat little boys. They were +climbing to the top of an ice-hillock and then sliding down again. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as they saw Teddy and the Counterpane Fairy they began to call: +“Oh, Father Bear! Father Bear! Just come look at these funny things +floating in to shore on a block of ice.” +</p> + +<p> +In a moment from behind the ice-hill came a great white father bear galloping +up as fast as he could to see what the matter was. He came over toward Teddy +growling, “Gur-r-r! gur-r-r-r! Who are you, coming and frightening my +little bears this way?” But as soon as he saw the Counterpane Fairy he +grew quite humble. “Oh, excuse me,” he said. “I didn’t +know it was a friend of yours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is,” said the fairy, “and I have brought him here to +stay awhile. Will you take good care of him?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I will,” said Father Bear. “He shall sleep in the cave +with us and have part of our meat if he will, and I will be as careful of him +as though he were one of my own cubs.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” said the fairy; “mind you do.” Then +turning to Teddy she bade him step on shore. +</p> + +<p> +“But aren’t you coming too?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “I can’t come, but +Father Bear will take good care of you.” So Teddy stepped onto the shore, +and the fairy pushed the block of ice out into the water, and waving her hand +to him she drifted away across the open sea. +</p> + +<p> +The Father Bear stood watching her until she was out of sight, and then he +turned to Teddy. “Now, you Fairy,” he said, “you may climb up +onto my back, and I’ll carry you to my wife; she’ll take good care +of you for as long as the Counterpane Fairy chooses to leave you here.” +</p> + +<p> +The three little bears cubs had disappeared, but as soon as the Father Bear +carried Teddy around the hill of ice he saw what had become of them. They were +sitting with the Mother Bear at the door of a cave. One of them was sucking its +paws, and the other two were talking as fast as they could. The Mother Bear +looked worried and anxious. +</p> + +<p> +“What’s all this Dumpy and Sprawley are telling me?” she +said. “And what’s that you have on your back?” +</p> + +<p> +“It’s an ice-fairy,” growled old Father Bear, “and the +Counterpane Fairy wants us to take care of it for a while. You don’t +mind, my dear, do you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear, dear!” said the Mother Bear, “I suppose not, but +what shall we give it to eat, and how shall we keep it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, it will do just the other cubs do, I suppose,” said the Father +Bear. Then turning to Teddy he said, “You eat meat, don’t +you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir,” answered Teddy, timidly. +</p> + +<p> +“Then that’s all right,” said the Father Bear. “Here, +you children, take this fairy off and let him play with you.” +</p> + +<p> +Two of the little bears, Fatty (who was the one who had been sucking his paws) +and Dumpy, were delighted to have a new playmate, and they told him he might +come over and slide down their hill, but the third one, Sprawley, scowled and +grumbled. “Another one to be eating up our meat,” he said. +“Just as if there weren’t enough of us without.” +</p> + +<p> +Still he went over with them to the icehill and they all began sliding down. +</p> + +<p> +After a while Sprawley said: “I know a great deal nicer hill than this +one. It’s just a little farther on; come on and I’ll show it to +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh,” said Fatty, “but suppose we should see some +ice-mermen?” +</p> + +<p> +“Pooh!” said Sprawley, “I ain’t afraid. It’s a +great deal nicer than this. Come on.” +</p> + +<p> +So the three little bears and Teddy trotted on to another hill, and it really +was much longer and steeper than the other; it went down almost to the edge of +the sea. +</p> + +<p> +They had slidden down it only a few times when Dumpy cried out: “Oh! +look! look! There are some ice-mermen and they are making faces at me.” +</p> + +<p> +There they were, sure enough, looking over the edge of the ice, — ugly +little gray things with mouths like fishes, and they were making faces, and +presently they began to sing, — +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Bear cubs! Bear cubs! Look at their toes;<br/> +Look at their ears and their hair and their nose.<br/> +The great big walrus will surely come<br/> +To eat up the bear cubs and give us some.” +</p> + +<p> +Dumpy growled at them, though he was frightened, but Fatty began to cry. +</p> + +<p> +Just then one of the mermen sent a piece of ice sliding across at them, and it +hit Fatty’s paws and upset her. She was so fat that she rolled over and +over before she could get up. Dumpy ran to her, and as soon as she was on her +feet again they began galloping toward home as fast as they could, followed by +Sprawley and Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +As they ran along Teddy saw that Sprawley was shaking all over, and he thought +it was because he was afraid, until he caught up to him; then he saw that he +was laughing. “What are you laughing at?” he asked, but Sprawley +only showed his teeth and growled in answer. +</p> + +<p> +When they reached the cave and told the Mother Bear about the mermen she +scolded them well for going so near the edge of the water, and said it was time +for them to go to bed. Father Bear was going on a hunt the next day, and he was +going to let the cubs go part of the way with him, so they must have a good +rest. +</p> + +<p> +The Mother Bear gave them each their share of seal meat, and then she went into +the cave. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Fatty,” said Sprawley, “just look behind you and see if +you don’t see a merman.” +</p> + +<p> +Fatty turned her head, but there was nothing there. When she looked back again +she burst into a loud whine. “Ou-u-u! ou-u-u-u!” she cried, +“Sprawley stole my nicest piece of meat, so he did. Ou-u-u!” +</p> + +<p> +Out shuffled Mother Bear in a hurry. “You naughty cub,” she cried, +aiming a blow at Sprawley’s ear. But quick as a wink Sprawley slipped +behind Dumpy, and it was upon Dumpy that the blow fell. +</p> + +<p> +And now Dumpy joined in with his sister. “Ou-u-u!” he cried. +</p> + +<p> +“There, there!” cried the poor Mother Bear, “don’t you +cry any more and I’ll give you each an extra piece of meat.” +</p> + +<p> +So they stopped crying and ate their suppers contentedly, and after that they +all went to bed, and the little cubs had hardly lain down before they were fast +asleep. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy did not go to sleep, however. He lay looking at the ice-roof of the cave +and thinking how strange it was to be there. Presently he heard the Mother Bear +say very softly, “Husband, husband, are you awake?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I am,” said the Father Bear. “What do you want?” +</p> + +<p> +The Mother Bear sighed. “I don’t know how it is, husband,” +she said, “but I never had a cub like Sprawley before. He is so naughty +and mischievous that he keeps his little brother and sister whining all the +time.” +</p> + +<p> +“You ought to box him,” said the Father Bear. +</p> + +<p> +“That’s all very well,” said the Mother Bear, “but when +I try to box him he slips behind the others and pushes them forward, and he is +so quick that twice I have boxed Dumpy instead of him by mistake.” +</p> + +<p> +The Father Bear grunted and they were silent for a while, but presently the +Mother Bear began again, more softly than ever. “Do you know, husband, +sometimes I wonder whether Sprawley can really be my cub. If I could only count +them I might find out. If there were only one and one I could count them, but +there are more than one and one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said Father Bear, “I should think that would be easy. +Let’s see. There’s Dumpy, and he’s one, and Fatty, and +she’s one, and Sprawley, and he’s one. And now how many does that +make?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear!” said the Mother Bear, “Don’t ask me. My +head’s all of a whirl already.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then you’d better go to sleep, my dear,” said her husband. +“The next thing you know you’ll be having a headache to-morrow. You +think too much.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the Mother Bear, sighing, “That’s so; I +suppose I do think too much, but then I can’t help it. I always was +thinking ever since I was a cub. It’s the way I’m made. +Good-night.” +</p> + +<p> +“Good-night,” said the Father Bear, and then they, too, went to +sleep. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy seemed to be the only one left awake. Dumpy kept crowding up against him +and snoring with his nose close to Teddy’s ear. Teddy pushed him once or +twice, but it didn’t seem to make any difference. Once he poked him so +hard that the little bear gave a snort and stopped snoring for a while, but +soon he began again. +</p> + +<p> +But after all Teddy found he was not the only one in the cave who was not +asleep. Sprawley, who was lying on the other side of Fatty, had began to stir +and sit up; he looked about at the sleeping bears, and then very quietly began +to edge himself toward the mouth of the cave. +</p> + +<p> +Once the Mother Bear gave a low growl in her sleep and Sprawley stopped still +to listen, but she didn’t waken. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy wondered what Sprawley was going to do, and so, as soon as the cub had +disappeared through the mouth of the cave, he too crawled over to the opening. +</p> + +<p> +When he looked out he saw Sprawley shuffling over the fields of ice in the +distance, and already quite far away, so, led by his curiosity, Teddy, too, +crept out of the cave and set off running after the bear cub. +</p> + +<p> +He ran on and on until he was quite close to Sprawley, and then he saw the cub +pause at the edge of a strip of open water, and turn to look behind him to make +sure that he was not followed. He did not see Teddy, for the fairy had hidden +quickly behind a block of ice. +</p> + +<p> +Sprawley turned toward the water again and gave a long, quavering cry that +sounded like a call. He listened, but everything was silent except for the +rumbling and cracking of the ice in the distance. Again he called, and this +time there was an answering cry, and another, and another. Sprawley stood up +and waved his paws, and then Teddy saw that the open water was dotted with +heads of ice-mermen; there must have been ten or twelve of them at least. +</p> + +<p> +They swam over to where Sprawley stood, and climbing out on the ice they seemed +to be welcoming him, hopping and sliding about, and pulling at his hair and +claws. Now that Teddy saw them quite close they were uglier than ever, with +goggle eyes, and rough, fishy-looking skins. +</p> + +<p> +They all sat on the edge of the ice, and now and then one of them would dive +off, to reappear again, all wet and glistening, and then it would climb up and +sit on the ice again in a row with the others. They all talked together, and +their voices were so queer and husky that Teddy could not understand what they +were saying at first. At last he made out that they were asking Sprawley about +him, —where he had come from, and how. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’ll tell you how he came,” said Sprawley, and all the +mermen stopped to listen. Sprawley, too, was silent for a moment, and then he +said in a low, impressive voice, “The Counterpane Fairy brought +him.” +</p> + +<p> +There was a long, quavering cry from the mermen, and several of them dived off +into the water and did not reappear again for some minutes; when they did, +their faces were all wrinkled up with anxiety. +</p> + +<p> +They climbed up onto the edge of the ice and sat there blinking at the sky for +a while in silence; then one of them said in a trembling voice, “Well, we +haven’t been doing anything but just frightening the bear cubs a +little.” +</p> + +<p> +“How about knocking Fatty down with a piece of ice?” asked +Sprawley, derisively. +</p> + +<p> +“Scritchy did that,” cried all the mermen but one. “We +didn’t do it. Scritchy did that.” +</p> + +<p> +The merman who hadn’t spoken, and who was Scritchy, still did not say a +word. He looked at the others with his goggle eyes and then he tumbled off into +the water and swam away as fast as he could and did not come back any more. +</p> + +<p> +All the other mermen looked after him in silence until he had disappeared; then +one of them said in an awe-struck voice, “It’s bad for you, +Sprawley, ain’t it? Just think what you’ve been doing.” +</p> + +<p> +“Pooh,” said Sprawley, pretending he was not frightened, +“what do I care? I can fix it all right.” +</p> + +<p> +“How?” asked all the mermen together. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, listen, and I’ll tell you,” said Sprawley. +“To-morrow Father and Mother Bear are going hunting, and all of us little +cubs are to go with them. I suppose this strange fairy cub will go with us, and +when we stop to rest I’ll get him away from the others and near the edge +of the water. You must come under the ice and break off the piece he is +standing on, and float him far, far away toward the South until he +melts.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, yes! we’ll do it,” cried all the mermen jumping about +and shouting. Then they turned to Sprawley. “Come,” they cried, +“let’s have a game in the water before you go back.” +</p> + +<p> +“That I will,” said Sprawley, and with that what should he do but +strip off his bear-skin just as though it were a coat, and there he was, +nothing more nor less than a merman who had been dressed up in an old skin, +pretending to be a bear cub. +</p> + +<p> +Sprawley and all the other mermen dived off into the water and began splashing +and shrieking and pulling at each other and getting farther and farther away. +</p> + +<p> +“All the same, I don’t think you’ll float me off,” said +Teddy to himself. +</p> + +<p> +Very quietly he crept to where the bear-skin lay on the ice, and taking out his +knife he cut a long slit up the back of it. Then not waiting for the mermen to +come back he hurried home again over the ice to the bears’ cave, and +crawling in he laid himself down again between the sleeping cubs. +</p> + +<p> +The little bears were beginning to stir themselves and the Mother Bear was +yawning and stretching when Sprawley came sneaking into the cave again. +</p> + +<p> +“Why! why!” said the Mother Bear, “where have you +been?” +</p> + +<p> +“I ain’t been anywhere,” said Sprawley. “I just thought +I heard a sea-lion roaring and I went out to see.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, there’s no use your going to sleep again,” said the +Father Bear, “for we have to go a long ways to-day, and it’s time +we were getting ready to start now.” +</p> + +<p> +With that he shuffled out of the cave, followed by the Mother Bear, and stood +looking about him. Presently the cubs came out, too, still blinking with sleep. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mother!” cried Dumpy, “just look at Sprawley’s +back!” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, what’s the matter with it?” asked the Mother Bear. +</p> + +<p> +“There ain’t anything the matter with it,” growled Sprawley, +twisting his head round and trying to see. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, there is too!” cried Fatty. “Oh my! Sprawley’s +splitting hisself all down the back.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why! why!” cried the Father Bear, “what’s this?” +He shuffled over and looked at Sprawley’s back, and then without a word +he began to tear and pull at the bear-skin. In another minute he had it off, +and there stood the merman shivering and blinking at them with his mouth open +like a gasping fish. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear! oh dear!” cried the Mother Bear, turning whiter than +ever. “He’s not my cub after all,” and she sat down and began +to whine and cry. But Father Bear gave a growl, and rising on his hind legs he +fetched the merman a cuff that sent him tumbling head over heels across the +ice. +</p> + +<p> +Father Bear was after him, but before he could reach him the merman was up and +running for the open strip of water in the distance. Father Bear chased him the +whole way; sometimes he caught him and gave him a cuff that sent him flying, +but at last the merman reached the water and dived into it. He must have had a +sore head for days afterward, however. +</p> + +<p> +When the Father Bear came back again, he was panting and growling. +“There,” said he, “I guess that’s the last time any of +the mermen will try to play their tricks on us. Come, come,” he went on, +“it’s time we were off for our hunting.” +</p> + +<p> +But the Mother Bear only shook her head. She had been doing nothing since she +saw that Sprawley was an ice-merman but sit and rock herself backward and +forward and whine. “I couldn’t go, my dear; I couldn’t +indeed,” she said. “I’m all of a tremble now to think how +that dreadful merman has been playing with Fatty and Dumpy day after day and I +never knew it.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I’ll go by myself,” said Father Bear, gruffly, +“and leave the children home with you. But you can go, Fairy,” he +said to Teddy. “I’ll carry you on my back if you like, and maybe +you’ll see me catch a young walrus. I suppose it was you who split him +down the back, as the Counterpane Fairy brought you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, sir, it was,” said Teddy, timidly; “but I’m +afraid I can’t go with you; I’m afraid I’m going back,” +—for the bears, the fields of ice, the far-off green water, were all +wavering and growing misty before his sight. Faintly he heard the voices of the +bear cubs: “Owie! owie! don’t go away”; for they had grown +fond of him the day before. +</p> + +<p> +Then their voices died away. He was back in the old familiar room with the +Counterpane Fairy perched upon his knees, and a bunch of snowdrops in the vase +beside the bed. The door opened and his mother stood holding the knob in her +hand and speaking to Hannah outside, and in that moment the Counterpane Fairy +was gone. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf06.gif" width="456" height="230" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="six"></a>CHAPTER SIXTH.<br/> +THE RUBY RING</h2> + +<p> +The next day, in spite of the doctor’s promises, Teddy was not allowed to +sit up. +</p> + +<p> +It was a raw, blustering day, and every feeling of spring seemed gone from the +air; the wind rattled at the windows, and Hannah built up the fire until it +roared. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy did not feel much disappointed at not being allowed to sit up, for +Harriett came over with her paint-box, and they began coloring the pictures in +some old magazines that mamma gave them; the bed was littered with the pages. +</p> + +<p> +After a while mamma left them and went down into the kitchen to bake a cake. +</p> + +<p> +“I wish I had brought my best apron over,” said Harriett, +“for then I could have stayed for dinner if you wanted me to.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why can’t you stay anyhow?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I can’t,” said Harriett. “I must go to +dancing-class right after dinner, and I have to wear my apron with the +embroidered ruffles.” +</p> + +<p> +“Harriett, why don’t you go home and get it, and then perhaps you +could have diner up here with me; wouldn’t you like that?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but maybe Aunt Alice doesn’t want me to stay.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, she does,” said Teddy. “I know she does, because she +said she was so glad to have you come and amuse me.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I’ll go home and ask my mother. I don’t know whether +she’ll let me.” +</p> + +<p> +“You won’t stay long, will you?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, I won’t,” promised Harriett. Then she put on her jacket +and hat and ran down-stairs. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy went on with his painting by himself for a while, but it seemed to him +Harriett was gone a long time. He called his mother once, and she came to the +foot of the stairs and told him she couldn’t come up just yet. +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy began thinking of the Counterpane Fairy, and the stories she had +shown him. He wondered if she wouldn’t come to see him to-day. She always +came when he was lonely, and he was quite sure he was getting lonely now. Yes, +he knew he was. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said a little voice just back of the counterpane hill, +“it’s not quite so steep to-day, and that’s a comfort.” +There was the little fairy just appearing above the tops of his knees, — +brown hood, brown cloak, brown staff, and all. She sat down with her staff in +her hand and nodded to him, smiling. “Good-morning,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-morning,” said Teddy. “Mrs. Fairy, I was wondering +whether you wouldn’t like it if I kept my knees down, and then there +wouldn’t be any hill.” +</p> + +<p> +“No,” said the fairy, “I like to be up high so that I can +look about me, only it’s hard climbing sometimes. Now, how about a story? +Would you like to see one to-day?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes!” cried Teddy. “Indeed, I would.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then which square will you choose? Make haste, for I haven’t much +time.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think I’ll take that red one,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Very good,” said the fairy, and then she began to count. +</p> + +<p> +As she counted, the red square spread and glowed until it seemed to Teddy that +he was wrapped in a mist of ruddy light. Through it he heard the voice of the +Counterpane Fairy counting on and on, and as she counted he heard, with her +voice, another sound, —at first very faintly, then more and more clearly: +clink-clank! clink-clank! clink-clank! It reminded him a little of the ticking +of the clock on the mantle, only it was more metallic. +</p> + +<p> +“FORTY-NINE!” cried the Counterpane Fairy, clapping her hands. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +And now the sound rang loud and clear in Teddy’s ears; it was the beating +of hammers upon anvils. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy looked about him he was standing on a road that ran along the side +of a mountain. All along this road were openings that looked like the mouths of +caverns, and from these openings poured the ceaseless sound of beating, and a +ruddy glow that reddened all the air and sky. +</p> + +<p> +It all seemed very familiar to Teddy, and he had a feeling that he had seen it +before. +</p> + +<p> +Stepping to the nearest cavern he looked in, and there he saw the whole inside +of the mountain was hollowed out into forges that opened into each other be +means of rocky arches. In every forge were little dwarfs dressed in leather and +hammering at pieces of red-hot iron that lay on the anvils. +</p> + +<p> +As Teddy stood looking in he was so tall that his head almost touched the top +of the doorway. He was dressed in a long red cloak, and under that he wore a +robe fastened about the waist with a girdle of rubies that shone and sparkled +in the light; upon his hand was a ruby ring. The stone of the ring was turned +inward toward the palm, but it was so bright that the light shone through his +fingers, and he drew his cloak over his hand that the dwarfs might not see it, +for it was not yet time for them to know that he was King Fireheart. +</p> + +<p> +After a while the iron that the little men were beating had to be put in the +fire again to heat, and then they turned and looked at Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-day,” said he. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-day,” answered the dwarfs, staring hard at him. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you making there?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“A link,” answered the dwarfs. +</p> + +<p> +“A link!” said Teddy. “What for?” +</p> + +<p> +“For a chain,” answered the dwarfs, and then the iron was hot and +they took it out again and laid it on the anvil. Clink-clank! clink-clank! +clink-clank! went their hammers. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy watched them at their work for a while, and then he went on to the next +forge, and there it was the same thing — more little dwarfs hammering +away at their anvils as if their lives depended on it. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-day,” said Teddy, as soon as they paused to heat the iron. +</p> + +<p> +“Good-day,” said the dwarfs. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you making there?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“A link,” answered the dwarfs. +</p> + +<p> +“What for?” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“For a chain,” answered the dwarfs, and then they set to work +again. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy went on and on through the forges, and in every one of them were little +dwarfs hammering away on links. +</p> + +<p> +When he came to the last forge of all, they were just finishing a link, and as +they threw it into a tank of water a cloud of steam rose, almost hiding them +from view. They were so busy that they paid no attention to Teddy when he +spoke. “Make haste! Make haste!” they cried to each other. +“It is growing late and she will soon be here.” +</p> + +<p> +In a great hurry the dwarfs caught up the link from the water and laid it on +the anvil again, and then they all stood back from it. Every noise has ceased +through all the forges, and the dwarfs were waiting in breathless stillness as +though for something to happen. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly, in the silence, Teddy heard a faint tinkling as though of icicles +struck lightly together, and at the same moment he saw that a woman all in +white had entered the forge down at the other end. Her dress shone with all +different colors, just as icicles do when they hang in the sunlight, and as the +light of the fire caught it here and there, it almost looked as though it were +on fire. Her hair was very black, and she wore a crown. +</p> + +<p> +She stepped up to the anvil that was in the forge and laid her hand upon it. +She was too far away for Teddy to see what she did, but there was a clink as of +something breaking, and a low wail arose from the dwarfs that stood near by. +Then she passed on to the next anvil, and to the next, and to the next, and at +each one she paused and touched the link that lay upon it, and always at that +there was a clink, and a wail arose from the dwarfs. +</p> + +<p> +At last she came to the very forge where Teddy was, but he had drawn back +behind the stone archway and she did not see him. Gliding to the anvil, she +stretched out her white finger and laid it upon the link that the dwarfs had +made, and instantly, as soon as she touched it, the iron flew into pieces with +a clink. +</p> + +<p> +The dwarfs burst into a low wail, but the woman with the crown struck her hands +together and stamped her foot in a rage. “Fools! fools!” she cried. +“Not yet one link that will not fly into pieces at a touch. But you shall +make the chain, though it should take your very hearts to do it.” +</p> + +<p> +Then, still scowling until her beautiful face was like a thunder-cloud, and +without a single glance at the trembling dwarfs, she glided from the forge and +was gone. +</p> + +<p> +The dwarf who held the pincers drew his arm across his forehead to wipe off the +sweat. “Come,” said he, “let us set to work, for now +it’s all to be done over again.” +</p> + +<p> +“But tell me first,” said Teddy, “what does this all mean, +and who is this woman with a crown who comes and breaks your links with a touch +as soon as you have finished them?” +</p> + +<p> +“Ah! that is a long, sad story,” said the dwarf who held the +pincers. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is a long, sad story,” echoed the others. “You tell +him, Leatherkin,” they added. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said Leatherkin, sitting down on a rock that lay close by, +“it’s this way. This mountain where we live is only one of many +that are called the Fire Mountains, because their rocks are so red, and because +they are all full of forges. Here we dwarfs used to live happily enough, for +our good King Fireheart was so rich and strong that no one dared to make war on +us, and we were left in peace to do what we would. +</p> + +<p> +“King Fireheart, however, was not contented, for he wanted to see the +world, so one day he set out on a journey, no one knew whither, leaving the +country in the charge of his foster-brother. +</p> + +<p> +“While he was away the Ice-Queen came with all her white spearsmen and +attacked the country and conquered it. Then she set us all to work, for she +knew that in all the world there were no such smiths as the dwarfs of the Fire +King’s country, and not until we have forged her the magic chain that +binds all but one’s self will she set us free to go about out own affairs +again. +</p> + +<p> +“That is why we are all working to forge the links, and if we could but +make one that would stand so much as a touch of her finger we would have hopes +of making it, but so far not one has been made but what flies into pieces at +her lightest touch. +</p> + +<p> +“But there,” he added; “we must set to work, for the days are +all too short for what we have to do.” +</p> + +<p> +“Wait a bit,” said Teddy, “I should like to have a stroke at +that chain myself. Will you lend me a hammer and let me try?” +</p> + +<p> +“No, no,” cried the dwarfs, shaking their heads. “We have no +time to waste in lending out hammers and anvil.” +</p> + +<p> +“Look!” said Teddy, taking off his ruby girdle and holding it out +to them. “You shall have this if you will let me try.” +</p> + +<p> +The dwarfs’ eyes glittered, and they took the girdle and all crowded +around to look and handle it, for they had never seen such fine rubies before, +not even down in the middle of the earth; and at last they told Teddy that they +would lend him their hammers awhile in exchange for the ruby girdle. +“Though what can you do with them?” they said, “for look at +your hands; they are white and smooth, and not hairy and strong like +ours.” +</p> + +<p> +“Never you mind,” said Teddy, “for sometimes white, smooth +hands can do the work that others can’t,” and he took one of their +hammers in his hand as he spoke. +</p> + +<p> +“What will you have to work with?” they asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, anything at all,” said Teddy, “if it is no more than an +old nail, so that it is something to begin with.” +</p> + +<p> +The dwarfs laughed, and picking up an old nail that was on the floor they laid +it upon the anvil. +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy raised the hammer, and the ruby of the ring he wore throbbed and +burned until his hand was hot, and his arm was so strong that the hammer was +like a feather in his grasp. +</p> + +<p> +As he beat and turned the nail he sang, and it seemed to him that the fire sang +with him, clear and thin, and sounding like the voice of the Counterpane +Fairy,— +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Hammer and turn!<br/> +The fire must burn,<br/> +The coals must glow,<br/> +The bellows blow.<br/> +<br/> +Beat, good hammer, loud and fast;<br/> +So the chain will be made at last.<br/> +<br/> +“Clankety-clink!<br/> +We forge the link.<br/> +My hammer bold,<br/> +This chain must hold.<br/> +<br/> +The snow shall melt, the ice fly fast,<br/> +For the magic chain is wrought at last.” +</p> + +<p> +With these words Teddy threw down the hammer and lifted the chain he had made, +and it was as thin as a hair, as light as a breath, and yet so strong that no +power on earth could break it. +</p> + +<p> +The dwarfs sprang forward with a shout and caught the chain in their crooked +fingers. “Wonderful! wonderful!” they cried. “It is indeed +the magic chain that we have been trying to make for all these years. Who are +you, wonderful stranger, for there is no smith among all the dwarfs who can do +what you have done?” +</p> + +<p> +Then without a word Teddy raised his hand, and held it up with the palm turned +toward them so that they saw the ruby in his ring, and when they saw it they +shouted again in their wonder and joy. “It is King Fireheart himself come +back to rule the country!” +</p> + +<p> +Then all the dwarfs, even from the farthest forges, came running up and +gathered about the archway of the forge where Teddy stood, and when they saw +that it was indeed King Fireheart they shouted and leaped and threw their caps +up into the air. +</p> + +<p> +When they had grown quieter Teddy bade them take him to the Ice-Queen, so all +the dwarfs led him out, and up the mountain, on and on, until they came to a +great castle built of ice, but ruddy with the cold light of the aurora borealis +that shone behind it. +</p> + +<p> +They went into the hall, past the rows of white spearsmen, and when the +spearsmen would have stopped them the dwarfs told them that they were carrying +the magic chain that binds all but one’s self to the Queen, and so they +let the little men pass on, but all the while Teddy kept the ruby ring hidden +under his cloak. +</p> + +<p> +At last they came to the great chamber, where the Queen sat on a magnificent +throne of ice, and when she saw the crowd she started to her feet. “Have +you brought it? Have you brought it?” she cried eagerly. “Have you +brought me the magic chain?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” shouted the dwarfs all together, “we have brought +it.” +</p> + +<p> +Then they stood still, and Teddy went on up the steps along. +</p> + +<p> +“Where is it?” asked the Queen, and she stretched out her hands. +</p> + +<p> +“It is here,” said Teddy. Very slowly he drew it out from under his +cloak, and then suddenly he threw it over her. “And now take it!” +he cried. +</p> + +<p> +It was in vain that the Queen struggled and cried; the more she strove, the +closer the chain drew about her, for it was a magic chain. At last she stood +still, panting. “Who are you?” she asked. +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy raised his hand, holding it open so that she could see the ruby. +“I am King Fireheart,” he cried; “and now take your own real +shape, wicked enchantress that you are.” +</p> + +<p> +At these words the black-browed Queen gave a cry that changed, even as she +uttered it, to a croak, and a moment after she was nothing but a great black +raven that spread its wings, and flew away over the heads of the dwarfs, out of +the window and on out of sight. +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy turned and walked out of the great ice-chamber and down the hall, +followed in silence by the dwarfs. As he went, the spearsmen started forward to +lay hands upon him, but as soon as they saw the ruby ring they stood, every man +stiffened just as he was, some leaning forward with outstretched arm, some with +their spears lifted, some with their mouths open, but all of them turned to +ice. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy and the dwarfs had reached the mountain road again they turned and +looked back toward the castle. +</p> + +<p> +A warm south wind was blowing, and the aurora borealis had faded away. Already +the castle was beginning to melt; the spires and turrets were softening and +dripping down. There was a warm red light over everything, like the light of +the rising sun. +</p> + +<p> +“And now,” cried the dwarfs, “will your Majesty come up to +your own royal castle?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” answered Teddy, “I will come.” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“Quick! quick!” cried the Counterpane Fairy. “It’s time +to come back.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was at home once more. There was the flowered furniture, and the fire +burning red upon the hearth. “Tick-tock! tick-tock! tick-tock!” +said the clock. +</p> + +<p> +“I must go,” cried the fairy, hastily, “for I heard your +little cousin opening and shutting the side door.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, wait!” cried Teddy. “Won’t you wait and let her +see you too?” But the fairy was already disappearing behind the +counterpane hill. All he could see was the top of her pointed hood. Then that +too disappeared. The door was thrown open and Harriett came running in bringing +a breath of fresh out-of-doors air with her. Her cheeks were red, and she +looked very pretty in her embroidered apron and pink ribbons. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf07.gif" width="462" height="252" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="seven"></a>CHAPTER SEVENTH.<br/> +THE RAINBOW CHILDREN.</h2> + +<p> +It was Sunday afternoon, and everything was very still. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy had been allowed to sit up that morning for the first time since he had +been ill. He had put on the little blue dressing-gown that mamma had made for +him, and she was so funny about getting him into it, and wheeling the chair +over to the window, that Teddy had laughed and laughed. +</p> + +<p> +After that he sat at the window looking out and watching the chickens in the +yard below, and the people going along the street. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy’s mamma was going to church, but his father stayed home with the +little boy, and told him stories, and drew pictures with a blue pencil on a +writing-pad; pictures of “David Killing Goliath,” and of +“Daniel in the Lions’ Den.” +</p> + +<p> +Then he drew a picture of the house in the real country where he and mamma and +Teddy were going to live some time —a house with a barn, and horses, and +cows, and pigs, and a pony that Teddy could ride when he came in to town to +school. +</p> + +<p> +The morning flew by so quickly that the little boy was surprised when mamma +came back from church, and said it was almost time for luncheon. +</p> + +<p> +She looked at the pictures that papa had drawn, and smiled when Teddy told her +about them; but very soon she began to talk seriously with papa. She told him +she had stopped in at Mrs. McFinney’s on her way home, and that she had +been wondering whether something couldn’t be done for little Ellen +McFinney’s lameness. She felt so sorry for her. +</p> + +<p> +Papa said the child ought to be sent to a hospital, and he thought that if that +were done she could be cured. Mamma said that she thought so too; but that +someone had been talking to little Ellen, and frightened her so that she cried +whenever the hospital was talked of, and her mother would not send her unless +she felt willing to go. +</p> + +<p> +Then mamma spoke of how lonely it must be for the little girl there in the +house by herself all the day, while her mother was out at work, with so little +to amuse her. +</p> + +<p> +“Mamma,” said Teddy, “why can’t little Ellen have some +of my books to amuse her— some I had when I was sick? Because, you know, +I’m well now, and don’t need them any more.” +</p> + +<p> +“That’s a very good idea,” said mamma, looking pleased. +“You may choose the ones you will give her, and perhaps papa will leave +them with her when he goes out for a walk this afternoon.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” cried Teddy, eagerly, “I think I’ll give her +the <i>Ali Baba</i> book and <i>Robinson Crusoe</i>, and I think, maybe, +I’ll give her <i>Little Golden Locks</i> too.” +</p> + +<p> +Mamma brought the books, and they tied them up in a neat package, and just as +they finished there was a little rattle of china outside the door, and in came +Hannah with Teddy’s luncheon, and a great yellow orange that Aunt Pauline +had sent him. +</p> + +<p> +After luncheon mamma made Teddy lie down for a while to rest. The Venetian +shutters were drawn, so that all the room was dimly green, and then mamma and +papa went out and left him alone. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy lay there for what seemed to him a long time. The house was very still, +and the afternoon sun shone in through the slats of the shutters in golden +chinks and lines. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy wondered where mamma was, and why she didn’t come back, for it +seemed to him that he had been alone almost all the afternoon, though really it +had not been for long. +</p> + +<p> +Presently he heard someone humming cheerfully back of the counterpane hill, and +as soon as he heard it he felt sure that the Counterpane Fairy must be coming. +</p> + +<p> +Sure enough in a few minutes she appeared at the top and stood looking down at +him with a pleasant smile. “Oh, Mrs. Fairy, I knew that was you!” +cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Did you?” said the fairy, sitting down on top of his knees. +“And then did you think, ‘Now I shall see another +story’?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, yes!” cried Teddy, eagerly. “I hoped you would show me +one.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I suppose I’ll have to,” said the fairy. “And +what square shall it be this time?” +</p> + +<p> +“There’s one close by you,” said Teddy, “and it’s +most every color, like a rainbow. Will you show me that story?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes,” said the fairy, “I’ll show you that. Now fix +your eyes on it.” Then she began to count. +</p> + +<p> +“FORTY-NINE!” she cried. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Teddy and little Ellen McFinney were running along, hand in hand, over a +rainbow that stretched across the shining sky like a bridge. The clouds above +them shone like opals, and far, far below was the green world, with shining +rivers, and houses that looked no larger than walnuts. +</p> + +<p> +“Can’t we run fast?” said Teddy. “I think we go as fast +as an express train; don’t you, Ellen?” +</p> + +<p> +“I know a faster way to go than this,” said the little girl. +</p> + +<p> +“Do you?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I do. Let go of my hand, and I’ll show you.” She drew +her hand away from Teddy, and very slowly she leaned back against the air as +though it were a pillow, then she gave herself a little push with her feet, and +away she floated so lightly and easily that Teddy could hardly keep up with +her. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Ellen!” cried Teddy, “will you teach me to do +that?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I will,” said Ellen. So she stood up and showed Teddy how to +take a long breath, and how to push himself, and then he found he could do it +quite well, and when Ellen began to float too, they could go along together +hand in hand just as they had before. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a thought crossed Teddy’s mind, and he cried, “Why, Ellen, +I thought you were lame!” +</p> + +<p> +“So I am,” said the little girl. +</p> + +<p> +“But you can run and float.” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I know, but that’s because I’m dreaming.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, no, Ellen, you can’t be dreaming,” said Teddy, +“for I’m here too.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I don’t know,” said Ellen, “but I think +I’m dreaming, because I’ve often dreamed this way before.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy thought of this for a little while, but it was not pleasant to think that +he was in a dream. After a while he said: “Ellen, don’t you know, +if you’re lame you ought to go to a hospital? My mamma says so, and my +papa says so too.” +</p> + +<p> +An ugly expression came into Ellen’s face. “That’s all you +know about it,” she cried. “You don’t catch me going to a +hospital. Why, I heard of a girl that went to a hospital and—” +</p> + +<p> +She was interrupted by a soft burst of laughter, and looking about Teddy saw +that he and she had floated right into midst of a group of little children, who +were running along the rainbow bridge. They were all such pretty little +children, with soft shining faces and bare feet, but they did not quite look +like any children that Teddy had ever seen before. +</p> + +<p> +Each little child carried in its hand a bunch of flowers, and they were such +flowers as the little boy had never dreamed of. Some of them moved on their +stalks, opening and closing their petals softly like the wings of butterflies, +some shone like jewels, and some seemed to change and throb as if with a hidden +pulse of life. +</p> + +<p> +Ellen, who had stopped floating, caught Teddy by the coat and hung back timidly +when she saw the children, but Teddy spoke to the one nearest to him. +“Where did you get your flowers?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“From the garden at the other end of the rainbow,” said the little +child, smiling at him. +</p> + +<p> +“Give me one?” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, no, I can’t!” answered the child, staring at him with +big eyes. “They’re for someone else.” +</p> + +<p> +“Whom are they for?” +</p> + +<p> +“You can come along and see.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, say,” whispered Ellen to Teddy, “let’s go +back!” But Teddy answered: “No, no! Come on and see where +they’re going.” So Ellen reluctantly followed him, and they joined +the other little children journeying along the rainbow. +</p> + +<p> +The strange little children seemed very happy, and they laughed and talked +together in their soft, clear voices, though Teddy could not always understand +what they said. He could understand best the little boy to whom he had spoken +first. Teddy asked him again where they were going, and this time the little +boy (he seemed to be the captain of the band) told him that they were going +down to the earth. He said that every week they had a holiday, and then they +crossed the rainbow bridge, and carried the flowers from their flower-beds down +to the little earth children. +</p> + +<p> +“But <i>what</i> little children?” asked Teddy, curiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, you’ll see!” answered the little boy, laughing, and then +he began to talk with the others, and Teddy could no longer understand him. +</p> + +<p> +It was not long after this that Teddy saw before him the end of the rainbow, +and where should it go but right through the window of a great square yellow +house, set back of a high wall and in the middle of a lawn. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh dear! we can’t get to the end of it after all,” cried +Teddy, and the next thing he knew the little children were walking through the +window just as if nothing were there, and he and Ellen were following them. +</p> + +<p> +“Where are we?” asked Ellen, looking about her, half frightened and +yet curious. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t think,” said Teddy. “Seems as if I knew, but I +can’t think.” +</p> + +<p> +They were in a long, bare, clean room, and on each side of it were rows of +little white beds, and in each bed lay or sat a little child. A few of the +children were asleep, most of them were awake, but all looked pale and thin. +Here and there at the sides of the beds grown-up people were sitting, sometimes +showing the children pictures or books, and sometimes reading to them. +</p> + +<p> +The children from the rainbow walked slowly up the aisle between the row of +beds, and, strangely enough, no one seemed to look at them or pay the least +attention, any more than if they had not been there, and at last Teddy began to +believe that they could not see them. +</p> + +<p> +Often the little strange children stopped to smooth a pillow or to softly +stroke the cheek or hand of one of the little earth children. +</p> + +<p> +Here and there one would linger behind the others, by some bed, and after a +moment would lay its bunch of flowers on the pillow. Then the little child in +the bed would turn its head and smile, even if it were asleep, and its face +would shine as if with some inward happiness. The whole room seemed filled with +the perfume of flowers, and Teddy wondered that no one paid any attention to +it. +</p> + +<p> +At last they came to a bed where a little child was lying fast asleep, and a +woman was sitting beside the child and fanning it. Suddenly its eyes opened, +and the moment they turned toward the rainbow children, Teddy knew that it saw +them. +</p> + +<p> +It lay looking for a moment and then it smiled and feebly tried to wave its +hand. “What is it, dear?” asked the woman, bending over the child, +but it paid no attention to her, for it was gazing at the rainbow children. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, he sees us! he sees us!” they cried, clapping their hands +joyfully. “He’ll be coming across the rainbow soon.” +</p> + +<p> +Then the rainbow children gathered about the bed and began talking to the +child, but Teddy could not understand what they said to it. The little child on +the bed seemed to understand them though, and it smiled and tried to nod its +head. +</p> + +<p> +“Come soon! Come soon!” cried the little children, waving their +hands to it as they moved away, and the eyes of the child on the bed followed +them wistfully, as though it were eager to follow. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy and Ellen still went with the other little children, and a moment after +they were out on the rainbow bridge again, high up above the world, but they +were alone, for the little strange children were gone. +</p> + +<p> +Ellen stood still and drew a long breath. “Oh! wasn’t that +lovely?” she sighed. “I wonder where it was!” +</p> + +<p> +“I know where it was!” cried Teddy suddenly. “I remember now, +for I saw a picture of it in one of papa’s magazines. That was a +hospital, Ellen.” +</p> + +<p> +“A hospital!” cried the little girl. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, a hospital.” +</p> + +<p> +Ellen did not say anything for some time, but at last she drew another deep +breath. “Well, if that’s a hospital I shouldn’t mind going to +a place like that,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +The rainbow had faded away, and Teddy was back in the great high-post bedstead +again, with the silk coverlet drawn up over his knees, and the Counterpane +Fairy still sitting on top of the hill. Teddy lay looking at her for a while in +silence. “Mrs. Fairy, was that a true story like the others?” he +asked her at last. +</p> + +<p> +“How should I know?” asked the fairy. “Do I look as though I +knew anything about rainbow children? You’d better ask Ellen McFinney; +maybe she can tell you.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, I will,” said Teddy. “I mean to ask her just as soon +as ever I’m well.” +</p> + +<p> +He did not have to wait for that, however, for the very next day his mother +told him that little Ellen had at last consented to be taken to the hospital, +and that perhaps when he saw the little girl again she would be able to walk +and run about almost like other children. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf08.gif" width="448" height="261" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="eight"></a>CHAPTER EIGHTH.<br/> +HARRIETT’S DREAM.</h2> + +<p> +Teddy had begged mamma to ask Harriett to come over and play with him after +school, but not to tell her that now he was no longer in bed, so when the +little girl came running in she was very much surprised. “Why, Teddy, +you’re well again, aren’t you?” she cried. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, now I’m well again,” said Teddy “and mamma says +we may each have a little sponge-cake, and she’s going to let us blow +soap-bubbles. Would you like to blow soap-bubbles, Harriett?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I guess so,” said Harriett. +</p> + +<p> +So mamma made them a bowl of strong suds, and brought out two pipes, and the +children played together very happily for quite a time. Sometimes they threw +the bubbles into the air and tried to blow them up to the ceiling; sometimes +the children put their pipes close together, so that the bubbles they blew were +joined in one lopsided globe. +</p> + +<p> +Last of all they set the bowl on a chair, and kneeling beside it put their +pipes into the suds, and blew and blew until quite a soap-bubble castle rose up +and touched their noses with wet suds. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy felt a little tired and soapy by that time, so mamma put all the things +away, and read them some stories from Grimm’s <i>Fairy Tales</i>. +</p> + +<p> +After that Harriett said she must go home, and indeed it was almost +supper-time, so mamma helped her put on her little hat and coat and kissed her +good-bye. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was very tired by the time supper was over; he felt quite willing to be +put to bed, and as soon as he was there he sank into a doze. +</p> + +<p> +When he awoke again he was alone; it was quite dark outside, but mamma had set +a lamp behind the screen. By its dim light Teddy saw the Counterpane +Fairy’s brown hood appearing above the hill, and he heard her sighing to +herself: “Oh dear! oh dear!” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mrs. Fairy!” cried the little boy, almost before she had +reached the top of the hill, “I’m so glad you’ve come, for I +don’t know when mamma will be here. Won’t you show me a +story?” +</p> + +<p> +“In a minute! in a minute!” said the fairy. “As soon as I can +catch my breath.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was so afraid that mamma would come in that he could hardly wait, and +when the Counterpane Fairy told him that she was ready and that he might choose +a square, he made haste and pointed out a silvery gray one. Then the fairy +began to count. “FORTY-NINE!” she cried. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +Teddy was walking down a long, smooth, gray road. There was a silvery mist all +about him, so that it was almost as though he were walking through the sky, and +the road seemed to begin and end in grayness. +</p> + +<p> +He knew that somewhere behind him lay his home, and that in front was the place +where he was going, but he did not know what that place was. +</p> + +<p> +At last he reached the edge of a wide gray lake as smooth and as shining as +glass. Beside him on the beach a little gray bird was crouching. +“Peet-weet! peet-weet!” cried the little gray bird. +</p> + +<p> +It was so close to Teddy’s feet that it seemed to him that with a single +movement he could stoop and catch it. Very softly he reached out his hand and +the little bird did not stir. “Peet-weet! peet-weet!” it cried. +Suddenly with a quick movement he clutched it. For a moment he thought that he +felt it in his fingers, all feathery and soft and warm, and then the voice of +the Counterpane Fairy cried, “Take care! you’re rumpling my +cloak!” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy dropped the bird as though it had burned him, and there it was not a bird +at all, but the Counterpane Fairy, who stood smoothing down her cloak and +frowning. “Oh! I didn’t know that was you; I thought it was a +bird,” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“A bird!” cried the fairy. “Do I look like a bird?” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy thought that she did, for her nose was long and thin, and her eyes were +bright like those of a sparrow, but he did not like to say so. All he said was, +“I wonder why I came here?” for now he knew that this was the place +that he had been coming to. +</p> + +<p> +“I suppose you came to see the dreams go by,” said the Counterpane +Fairy. “I often come for that myself.” +</p> + +<p> +“The dreams go by!” said Teddy. “I don’t know what you +mean.” +</p> + +<p> +“Do you see that castle over yonder?” asked the fairy, pointing out +across the lake. Teddy looked as hard as he could, and after a while he thought +he did see the shadowy roofs and turrets of a great gray castle through the +mist. +</p> + +<p> +“I think I do,” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“Well,” said the fairy, “that is where the dreams live, and +every evening they go sailing past here, on their way to the people who are +asleep, and I generally come down to see them go by. Look! look! There goes one +now.” +</p> + +<p> +A little boat, as pale and light as a bubble, was gliding through the mist; in +it was seated a gray figure, and as it passed the island it turned its face +toward them and waved a shadowy hand. Presently two more boats slid silently +by, and then another. “Oh, I know that dream!” cried Teddy; +“I dreamed that dream once myself.” +</p> + +<p> +Now there was a little pause, and then the dreams began to go past so fast that +Teddy lost count of them. +</p> + +<p> +At last one of the boats gilded out of the line of the rest, and over toward +where Teddy was standing, running up smoothly onto the gray beach, and out of +it hopped a queer, ugly little dream, with pop eyes and big hands and feet. As +soon as he found himself on shore he cut a caper and cracked his shadowy +fingers. +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you?” asked Teddy, curiously. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I’m just a dream,” said the little figure. +</p> + +<p> +“Well, what are you coming here for?” asked Teddy; “I’m +not asleep.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know you’re not,” said the dream, “and I’m not +coming to you. I’m going to a little girl named Harriett.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, I know her!” cried Teddy. “She’s my cousin. But +why are you her dream? You’re not pretty.” +</p> + +<p> +“I know I’m not pretty,” answered the dream, “and +that’s why I’m going to her. She was to have had such a pretty +dream to-night, but she ate a piece of plum-cake before she went to bed, so now +I’m going to her instead of the other one.” +</p> + +<p> +“What was the other one like?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“There it is,” said the dream, pointing toward the boat. And now +Teddy saw that another gray figure was in it. As he looked, it slowly and +sorrowfully stepped from the boat and came up the beach toward them. It was +very beautiful, and in its hand it carried a great bunch of shining bubbles, +fastened to a stick by parti-colored ribbons, just as Teddy had seen Italians +carrying balloons, only these bubble-balloons were growing and shrinking and +changing every moment, just as though they were alive. +</p> + +<p> +As she came toward them the ugly dream frowned and shook his hands at her. +“Go away! Go away!” he cried. “There’s no use your +following me around this way. You sha’n’t be dreamed +to-night.” +</p> + +<p> +“I think you might let me go into her dream with you,” said the +pretty dream, sorrowfully. “She didn’t know she oughtn’t to +eat the plum-cake.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, you sha’n’t,” said the ugly dream. “She +ain’t going to have any dream but me, and I’m going to look just as +ugly as I can. I’m going to do this way,” and the naughty little +dream put his thumbs in the corners of his mouth, drawing it wide, and at the +same time drew down the outside corners of his eyes with his forefingers, just +as Teddy had seen the boys at school do sometimes. Then the dream hopped up +into the air and cut a caper. “Ho, ho!” he cried, +“won’t it be fun? You can come along and see me frighten her, if +you want to.” This last he said to Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy thought him a very naughty, ugly-tempered little dream, but still he went +with him, wondering all the time how he could induce him to let the pretty +dream go to Harriett, and as they walked up the road together the pretty dream +still followed them, carrying her bunch of bubbles. +</p> + +<p> +They went on and on, until they came to a place where the ground was rough, and +broken up with a number of black holes. The ugly dream went from one to another +of these, pausing, and laying his ear to their edges. +</p> + +<p> +“What are you doing?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Hush! can’t you see I’m listening?” said the dream +crossly. +</p> + +<p> +At last, after pausing at one of them, he turned to Teddy and nodded his head. +“This is it,” he said; “this is where Harriett lives.” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, it isn’t at all!” cried Teddy, indignantly. “My +cousin Harriett doesn’t live in a hole! She lives in a great big house +with doors and windows.” +</p> + +<p> +“Well, anyway, this is her chimney,” said the dream, “and +it’s the only way to get into her house from here. If you want to come, +come; and if you don’t want to, why, stay,” and the dream sat down +on the edge of the hole. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy hesitated. “If I went down that way, I think I’d fall and +hurt myself,” he said at last. +</p> + +<p> +“Pooh! No, you wouldn’t if you took my hand,” said the dream. +“I always go this way, and it’s as easy as anything.” +</p> + +<p> +So Teddy sat down on the edge of the hole, and grasped the dream’s +shadowy fingers in his. Then they pushed themselves off the edge, and down they +went through the darkness. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy felt so frightened for a minute that he quite lost his breath, but he +held on tight to the dream’s fingers, and soon they landed, as softly and +lightly as a feather, right in the nursery of Aunt Paulina’s house, and +the pretty dream was still following them. +</p> + +<p> +“And now begins the fun,” whispered the dream. +</p> + +<p> +The house was very still, for everyone was fast asleep. The moon shone in +through the window, making the room bright, and beyond the open closet door +Teddy could see the toys all arranged in order just as Harriett had left them, +(for she was a tidy little girl), and Harriett herself was tucked into her +little white bed in the room beyond. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy felt so sorry to think of her having such an ugly dream that he stood +still. “You won’t frighten her very much, will you?” he +asked. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I shall!” said the ugly dream. “I’ll frighten her +just as much as ever I can; I’ll make her cry.” +</p> + +<p> +“No, you mustn’t,” said Teddy, almost crying himself. +“I won’t let you.” +</p> + +<p> +“You can’t help it,” cried the dream, tauntingly. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a bright thought came into Teddy’s mind. “Anyway, +you’re not so very ugly,” he said. “Harriet has a +Jack-in-the-box that’s a great deal—oh! ever so much uglier than +you.” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t believe it,” said the dream. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, she has,” said Teddy; “and it’s right there in +the closet.” +</p> + +<p> +“Then I’ll get it, and make myself look like it.” With that +the dream crawled into the closet, and pushed back the hook of the box where +Jack lived, and pop! up shot the most hideous little man that ever was seen, +with a bright red face and white whiskers. “Hi! he <i>is</i> ugly!” +cried the dream with delight, and sitting down before the box he began to make +his face like the Jack’s. +</p> + +<p> +Then softly and quickly Teddy closed the closet door, and turned the key in the +lock, fastening the dream in. “Hi there! let me out! let me out!” +cried the dream, beating softly on the door with its shadowy hands. +</p> + +<p> +“No, I won’t,” cried Teddy. “You can just stay in +there, you ugly dream, for the pretty dream is going to Harriett now.” +Then he turned to the pretty dream and took her by the hand, and her face shone +as brightly as one of her own bubbles. +</p> + +<p> +Together they ran into Harriett’s room, and there she lay in her little +white bed, with her eyes closed and her curls spread out over the pillow, and +when they came in she smiled in her sleep. +</p> + +<p> +The dream shook the bubbles above the bed, and the dimples came into +Harriett’s cheeks. “Oh! pretty, pretty!” she whispered with +her eyes still closed. “Oh, Teddy? isn’t it pretty?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, it is pretty!” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“Did you call me, dear?” asked mamma, opening the door. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was back in his own room, and all he could see of the Counterpane Fairy +was the tip of her brown hood disappearing behind the counterpane hill, and +that was gone in an instant. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mamma! it was such a pretty dream,” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Was it, darling?” said mamma. “Try to go to sleep again, +dear, for it is very late, and you can tell me all about it to-morrow. +Good-night, my little boy.” +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf09.gif" width="449" height="244" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="nine"></a>CHAPTER NINTH.<br/> +DOWN THE RAT-HOLE.</h2> + +<p> +The next day Teddy was allowed to go about and follow mamma into the +sewing-room, where he had the little cutting-table drawn out and his toys put +on it, and played for a long time. +</p> + +<p> +In the afternoon Harriett stopped for a little while, and as soon as Teddy saw +her his thoughts went back to the Counterpane Fairy and the story, and he cried +out: “Oh, Harriett! I know what you dreamed last night.” +</p> + +<p> +“What did I dream?” asked Harriett. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, you dreamed about the soap-bubbles and me; didn’t you?” +</p> + +<p> +“How did you know I dreamed that?” asked Harriett. +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy told her all about standing by the lake and seeing the dreams go +past, and how he had shut the ugly one up in the toy-closet. +</p> + +<p> +Harriett listened with great interest. “Wasn’t that a funny +dream?” she cried when he had ended. +</p> + +<p> +“A dream!” said Teddy. “Why, that wasn’t a dream, +Harriett. That’s the story the Counterpane Fairy showed me. And +don’t you know you <i>did</i> dream about the bubbles?” +</p> + +<p> +Harriet was silent awhile as if pondering it, and then she said, “My +canary-bird flew away this morning.” +</p> + +<p> +“Who let it out?” asked Teddy, with interest. “Did +you?” +</p> + +<p> +Harriett hesitated. “Well, I didn’t exactly let it out,” she +said. “I guess I forgot to close the door after I cleaned its +cage.” Then she added hastily: “But mamma hung the cage outside the +window, and she says she thinks maybe it’ll come back unless someone has +caught it.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy wanted to hear a great deal more about the canary, but Harriett said she +must go now, so he was left alone again to play with his toys. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner his mother went down-town to buy a present for Harriett, for the +next day was to be the little girl’s birthday. Teddy wanted to get her a +bag of marbles, but she thought perhaps she would be able to find something +Harriett would like better than that. She would look about and see. +</p> + +<p> +Before she went she made Teddy lie down on the bed, and covered him over with +the silk quilt, so that he might rest for a while. Then she kissed him and told +him to try to take a nap, and promised to be back soon. +</p> + +<p> +After she had gone Teddy dozed comfortably for a while. Then he grew wide awake +again, and turning over on his back he raised his knees into a hill, and lay +looking out of the window, and wondering when mamma would come home, and what +she would bring with her. +</p> + +<p> +“You’re not asleep, are you?” asked a little voice from his +knees. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Counterpane Fairy, I’m so glad you’ve come,” cried +Teddy, “for mamma has gone down-town, and I was just beginning to get +lonely.” +</p> + +<p> +There was the familiar little figure in the brown cloak and hood, seated on top +of the counterpane hill, and as he spoke she looked down on him smilingly. +“I suppose the next thing will be a story,” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! will you show me one?” cried Teddy. “I wish you would, +for I don’t know when mamma will be home.” +</p> + +<p> +“Very well,” said the fairy. “Perhaps I can show you one +before she comes back. Which square shall it be this time?” +</p> + +<p> +“I’ve had the red, and the yellow, and the green, and ever so many: +I wonder if that brown one has a good story to it.” +</p> + +<p> +“You might choose it and see,” said the fairy. So Teddy chose that +one, and then the fairy began to count. “One, two, three, four, +five,” she counted, and so on and on until she reached +“FORTY-NINE!” +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“Why, how funny!” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +He was nowhere at all but on the back door-step, and he sat there just as +naturally as though he were not in a story at all. Then the back gate opened, +and in through it came a little withered old woman, wearing a brown cloak, and +a brown hood drawn over her head. “Why, Counterpane Fairy!” cried +Teddy, but when she raised her head and looked at him he saw that it was not +the Counterpane Fairy after all, but an old Italian woman carrying a basket on +her arm. +</p> + +<p> +“You buy something, leetle boy?” she said. +</p> + +<p> +“I can’t,” said Teddy. “I haven’t any money +except what’s in my bank, but I’ll ask Hannah and maybe she +will.” +</p> + +<p> +So saying he ran into the kitchen. The clock was ticking on the wall, and the +room smelled of fresh-baked bread, but it was empty. Opening the door of the +stairway, Teddy called, “Hannah! Hannah!” There was no answer; it +all seemed strangely still upstairs. “She must have gone out,” +Teddy said to himself. +</p> + +<p> +When he went back to the outside door the old Italian had put down her basket +and was sitting on the step beside it. She did not seem at all surprised when +he told her he could not find anyone. “You not find anyone, and you not +have money,” she said. “Then I tell you what I do; you put your +hand in dis baskit, and I give you what you take; I make what you call +‘present.’” +</p> + +<p> +“Will you really?” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Yis,” said the little old woman, smiling, and her smile was just +like the smile of the Counterpane Fairy. +</p> + +<p> +“And you’ll give me whatever I take?” +</p> + +<p> +“Yis,” said the little old woman again. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy put his hand in under the cover and caught hold of something hard and +cold. He pulled and pulled at it, and out it came; it was a little iron shovel. +</p> + +<p> +“You take something more,” said the little old woman. Teddy +hesitated, but when he looked at her again he saw that she really meant it, so +he put his hand in and this time he pulled out a large iron key. +</p> + +<p> +“Now try once more,” said the little old woman, and this third time +it was a rat-trap baited with cheese, that Teddy drew from the basket. +</p> + +<p> +“But what shall I do with them?” he asked. +</p> + +<p> +“You keep dem,” said the old Italian, “and you find you need +dem by and by.” Then she rose, and pulling her cloak over the basket she +took her staff in her other hand and hobbled down the pathway. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy slipped the key into his pocket, and holding the shovel and the trap he +ran down to the gate to open it for her. He stood looking after her as she went +on down the street, her staff striking the bricks sharply, tap! tap! tap! Her +back was certainly exactly like the Counterpane Fairy’s. +</p> + +<p> +As he walked slowly up the path swinging his shovel by the handle, he noticed +that there was a rat-hole just back of the rain-butt, and he thought what fun +it would be to dig it out, so he put the cage down on the ground and set to +work with his shovel. +</p> + +<p> +The earth broke away from the rat-hole in great clods, and he found it so easy +to dig that very soon he had made quite a big hole. +</p> + +<p> +Then he saw that down in this hole there was a flight of stone steps leading +into the earth. “Why, isn’t that funny!” said Teddy. +“Right in the back yard, too. I wonder where they go!” +</p> + +<p> +Tucking the shovel under his arm and taking the trap in his hand, Teddy stepped +into the rat-hole and began to go down the stairs. +</p> + +<p> +He went on down and down and down, and at last he came to an iron door, and it +was locked. Teddy tried it and knocked, but there was no answer. He listened +with his ear against it, but he heard nothing, and he was just about to turn +and go up the stairs again, when he remembered the key the little old woman had +given him. +</p> + +<p> +He pulled it out of his pocket, and when he tried it in the keyhole it fitted +exactly. He turned it, the door flew open, and Teddy stepped through. +</p> + +<p> +Beyond was a cave, just such as he had often wished he could live in, with a +rough table and chair, old kegs, and a heap of rubbish in one corner. On each +side of the cave was a heavy door studded with iron nails. “I will just +see where these doors lead to,” said Teddy to himself, laying his trap +and his shovel behind one of the kegs. +</p> + +<p> +As he reached the first door and put his hand on it he heard someone singing +the other side of it as sweetly and clearly as a bird, and this is what the +voice sang: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“In field and meadow the grasses grow;<br/> +The clouds are white and the winds they blow.<br/> +Out in the world there is much to see,<br/> +If I were but free! If I were but free!<br/> +My wings were bright and my wings were strong;<br/> +I plumed myself and I sang a song:<br/> +Where is the hero to rescue me,<br/> +And set me free? And set me free?” +</p> + +<p> +The song ended and Teddy opened the door. +</p> + +<p> +Within was another room that looked almost like the first, only there was a +fireplace in it, and in front of this fireplace a young girl was sitting. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as Teddy opened the door she looked over her shoulder, and when she saw +him she sprang to her feet with a glad cry and clasped her hands. +“Oh!” she cried, “have you come to rescue me?” +</p> + +<p> +“Who are you?” asked Teddy, wondering at her. +</p> + +<p> +She was very beautiful. Her eyes were as bright and black as a sloe, her hair +shone like threads of pure gold, and she wore a long cloak of golden feathers +over her shoulders. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy spoke she answered him, “I am Avis, the Bird-maiden.” +</p> + +<p> +“And how did you come here?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +Then the Bird-maiden told him how she used to live in a golden castle that was +all her own; how she ate from crystal dishes and bathed every morning in a +little marble bath-tub, and had nothing to do all day but swing in her golden +swing and sing for her own pleasure. But after a while she grew tired of all +this and began to wonder what the outside world was like, and one the day the +sun was so bright and the air so sweet that she left her home and flew out into +the wide, wide world. +</p> + +<p> +That was all very pleasant until she grew tired and sat down on a stone to +rest. Then a great brown robber came and caught her and carried her down into +his den, and there he kept her a prisoner in spite of her tears and prayers, +and there she must wait on him and keep his house in order; every day he went +out and left her along, coming back loaded down with food or golden treasure +that he had stolen. +</p> + +<p> +“But why don’t you run away?” asked Teddy. “I +would.” +</p> + +<p> +“Alas! I can’t,” said the Bird-maiden, “for whenever +the robber-magician goes out he locks the door after him, and I have no key to +open it.” +</p> + +<p> +Then Teddy told her that he had a key that would unlock the door and that he +would save her. +</p> + +<p> +The Bird-maiden was very glad, but she said they must make haste, for it was +almost time for the robber to come home; so she wrapped her cloak around her, +and Teddy took her by the hand and together they ran to the door. +</p> + +<p> +They had hardly reached the outer cave, however, when Teddy heard a loud bang +that echoed and re-echoed from the walls. +</p> + +<p> +“Alas! Alas!” cried the Bird-maiden, shrinking back and beginning +to wring her hands, “we are too late. There comes the robber, and now we +will never escape.” +</p> + +<p> +She had scarcely said this when in marched the robber-magician sure enough. He +wore a great soft hat pulled down over his face, and he had a long brown nose +and little black beads of eyes. His mustache stuck out on each side like +swords, and he carried a great sack over his shoulder. +</p> + +<p> +The robber-magician threw the sack down on the floor and frowned at Teddy from +under his hat. “How now!” he cried. “Who’s this who has +come down into my cavern without even so much as a ‘by your +leave’?” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy felt rather frightened, but he spoke up bravely. “I’m +Teddy,” he said, “and I didn’t know this was your cave. I +thought it was just a rat-hole.” +</p> + +<p> +“A rat-hole!” cried the robber-magician, bursting into a roar of +laughter. “A rat-hole! My cave a rat-hole! Ho! ho! ho!” +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, I did,” said Teddy, “and I didn’t know it was +yours, but if you want me to go I will.” +</p> + +<p> +“Not so fast,” said the robber. “Sometimes it is easier to +come into my cave than to go out, and you must sit down and have some supper +with me now that you are here.” +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was quite willing to do that, for he was really hungry, so he and the +robber drew chairs up to the table, and the Bird-maiden, at a gesture from the +robber, picked up the sack that he had thrown upon the ground, and out from it +she drew some pieces of bread and some bits of cold meat. It did not look +particularly good, but it seemed to be all there was, so when the robber began +to eat Teddy helped himself too. +</p> + +<p> +The robber-magician did not take off his hat, and he ate very fast; after a +while he leaned back in his chair and began to tell Teddy what a great magician +he was, and about his treasure chamber. +</p> + +<p> +“There,” he said, “is where I keep my gold. I have gold, and +gold, and gold, great bars and lumps and crusts of gold, all piled up in my +treasure chamber.” At last he rose, pushed back his chair, and bade Teddy +follow him and he should see how great and rich he was. +</p> + +<p> +Leading the way across the cave, he unlocked the third door, and flinging it +open stepped back so that Teddy might look in. As he opened it a very curious +smell came out. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy stared and stared about the treasure chamber. “But where is the +gold?” he said. +</p> + +<p> +“There, right before your eyes,” said the robber. +“Don’t you see it?” +</p> + +<p> +“Why, that isn’t gold. That’s nothing but cheese,” +cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“Cheese! cheese!” cried the robber-magician, stamping his foot in a +rage; “I tell you it’s gold.” +</p> + +<p> +“It isn’t! it’s cheese!” said Teddy. “Look! I +have some just like it; I’ll show you,” and running to the keg +where he had left his trap he pulled it out and held it up for the robber to +see. +</p> + +<p> +As soon as the robber-magician saw the cheese in the trap his fingers began to +work and his mouth to water. “Oh, what a fine rich piece of gold!” +he cried. “How do you get it out?” +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know,” said Teddy. “I don’t think it +comes out.” +</p> + +<p> +“There must be some way,” cried the robber. “Let me +see,” and taking the trap from Teddy he put it down on the floor and +began to pick and pry at the bars, but he could not get the cheese out, and the +more he tried the more eager he grew. “There’s one way,” he +muttered to himself, looking up at Teddy suspiciously from under his slouch +hat. +</p> + +<p> +“How is that?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“If one were only a rat one could get at it fast enough,” said the +robber-magician. +</p> + +<p> +“Yes, but you’re not,” said Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“All the same it might be managed,” said the magician. Again he +tore and tore at the bars, and he grew so eager that he seemed to forget about +everything but the cheese. “I’ll do it,” he cried, +“yes, I will.” Then he laid of his great soft hat, and crossing his +forefingers he cried: +</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“Innocent me! Innocent me!<br/> +As I was once again I will be.” +</p> + +<p> +And now the magician’s nose grew longer, his mustache grew thin and stiff +like whiskers, his sword changed to a long tail, and in a minute he was nothing +at all but a great brown rat that ran into the trap. +</p> + +<p> +“Click!” went the trap, and there he was fastened in with the +cheese. +</p> + +<p> +It was in vain that he shook the bars and squeaked. +</p> + +<p> +“Quick! quick!” cried the Bird-maiden, “let us escape before +he can use his spells.” She caught Teddy by the hand, and together they +ran to the door that led to the stairway. “Your key! Oh, make +haste!” cried the Bird-maiden, breathlessly. +</p> + +<p> +In a moment Teddy had unlocked the door they had passed through, and it had +swung to behind them. Up the stairs they ran, and there they were standing in +the sunlight near the rain-butt. +</p> + +<p> +“I am free! I am free!” cried the Bird-maiden, joyously. “Oh! +thank you, little boy. And now for home.” She caught the edges of her +cloak and spread it wide, and as she did so it changed to wings, her head grew +round and covered with feathers, and with a glad cry she sprang from the earth +and flew up and away and out of sight through the sunlight. +</p> + +<p> +“Why, it’s Harriett’s canary!” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +“And now I must go,” said the Counterpane Fairy. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy was back in the India-room. The sun was low, and a broad band of pale +sunlight lay across the foot of the bed. The fairy was just starting down the +counterpane hill. +</p> + +<p> +“Was it really Harriett’s canary?” asked Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I haven’t time to talk of that now,” cried the Counterpane +Fairy, “for I hear your mother coming. Good-bye! good-bye!” +</p> + +<p> +And sure enough she had scarcely disappeared behind the counterpane hill when +his mamma came in. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Mamma!” cried Teddy, “do you think Harriett’s +canary came back? +</p> + +<p> +“I don’t know, dear,” said his mother. Then she put a little +package into his hand. “Do you think Harriett will like that?” she +asked. +</p> + +<p> +When Teddy opened the bundle he saw a cunning little bisque doll that sat in a +little tin bath-tub. You could take the doll out and dress it, or you could +really bathe it in the tub. +</p> + +<p> +“Oh! isn’t that cute!” cried Teddy, with delight. +“Won’t little Cousin Harriett be pleased!” +</p> + +<p> +“I hope she will,” said mamma. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/cpf10.gif" width="434" height="197" alt="Picture" /> +</div> + +<h2><a name="ten"></a>CHAPTER TENTH.<br/> +THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY SAYS GOOD-BYE</h2> + +<p> +Teddy was to go out-doors the next day if it was mild and pleasant. The doctor +had come in that morning for the last time to see him. “Well, my little +man,” he had said, giving Teddy’s cheek a pinch, “can’t +be pretending you’re a sick boy any longer with cheeks and eyes like +these. Now we’ll have you back at school in no time, and then I suppose +you’ll be up to all your old tricks again.” +</p> + +<p> +Later on the little boy had gone downstairs for dinner, for the first time +since he had been ill. Everything there had looked very strange to him, and as +if he had not seen it for years. +</p> + +<p> +He had felt just as well as ever until he tried to chase the cat, Muggins, down +the hall, and then his legs had given way in a funny, weak fashion that made +him laugh. +</p> + +<p> +After dinner Muggins followed him upstairs, and curling down under a chair went +fast asleep. Teddy took his blocks and built them about the chair, so that when +the cat woke he found himself built up inside a little house. +</p> + +<p> +However, a door had been left, and he poked his nose and his paw through it, +and then the whole front wall went down with a noisy clatter, and Muggins +scampered down to the kitchen with his tail on end. Teddy had to laugh; he +looked so funny. +</p> + +<p> +Papa came home from his office earlier than usual that afternoon, bringing with +him a bundle of long, smooth sticks and a roll of tissue papers, and spent all +the rest of the time between that and supper in making a great kite for Teddy. +He told the little boy that if the next day were fine he would fly it for him, +and that he might ask some of the boys to come and help. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy had never seen such a large kite before. When papa stood it up it was a +great deal taller than the little boy himself. The gold star that was pasted on +where the sticks crossed was just on a level with his eyes. +</p> + +<p> +So much seemed to have happened that day that very soon after supper Teddy felt +tired and was quite willing to let mamma undress him and put him to bed. +</p> + +<p> +It felt very good to lie down between the cool sheets again, and very soon +Teddy’s eyelids began to blink heavily, and he was already drifting off +into that blissful feeling that comes just as one is going to sleep, when he +became dimly conscious of a faint sound of music. +</p> + +<p> +At first, half asleep as he was, he thought that it must be little Cousin +Harriett winding up the music-box in the room, and then he suddenly started +into consciousness with the remembrance that he was alone and that it +couldn’t be Cousin Harriett. She was at home; in bed perhaps, already. +</p> + +<p> +The music seemed to sound quite near him, and it was very sweet and soft. Now +that he was awake it sounded more like the voice of the singing garden than +anything else. +</p> + +<p> +Suddenly a faint rosy light appeared at the foot of the bed, and standing in it +was the most beautiful lady that Teddy had ever seen. She was quite +tall,—as tall as his own mother, and not even the fairy Rosine, or the +Bird-maiden,—no, nor the Princess Aureline herself, had been half as +beautiful. +</p> + +<p> +But though the lady was so lovely there was something very familiar about her +face. “Why, Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +The Counterpane Fairy, for it was indeed she, did not speak, but smiling at +Teddy she moved softly and smoothly, as though swept along by the music to the +side of the bed, and, still smiling, she bent above the little boy. +</p> + +<p> +As he looked up into the face that leaned above him, it seemed to change in +some strange way, and now it was the old Italian woman who had given him the +presents from her basket; a moment after it was the face of the little child +who had talked with him upon the rainbow; no, it was not; it was really the +Counterpane Fairy herself, and no one else. +</p> + +<p> +Closer and closer she leaned above him, seeming to enfold him with faint music +and light and perfume. “Good-bye,” she whispered softly. +“Good-bye! little boy.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Counterpane Fairy! where are you going? Don’t go away!” +cried Teddy. +</p> + +<p> +“I’m not going away,” said the fairy. “I shall be +beside you still just as often as ever, only you won’t see me.” +</p> + +<p> +“But won’t there be any more stories?” cried Teddy, in +dismay. +</p> + +<p> +“Sometime, perhaps,” said the Counterpane Fairy, “but not +now, for to-morrow you’ll be out and playing with the other boys, and +after that it will be your school and your games that you’ll be thinking +of.” +</p> + +<p> +“Oh, Counterpane Fairy, don’t go!” cried Teddy again, +reaching out his arms toward her; but they touched nothing but empty air. +Waving her hand to him and still smiling, the Counterpane Fairy slowly, slowly +faded away. With her too, faded the rosy light and the perfume that had filled +the room; only the faint sound of music was left. Then it too died away. +</p> + +<p> +Teddy sat up and looked about him. The room was very still and dim. He heard +nothing but the ticking of the clock. The half-moon had sailed up above the +dark tops of the pine-trees on the lawn outside, and by its light he saw the +great kite that papa had made him, as it stood propped up on the mantle. The +gilt star in the middle of it shone. +</p> + +<p> +It was true that he was no longer a little sick child. To-morrow he would be +out-of-doors again, and shouting and playing with all the other boys. +</p> + +<p class="center"> +THE END. +</p> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/bar.gif" width="436" height="64" alt="" /> +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE COUNTERPANE FAIRY ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. Project Gutenberg is a registered trademark, +and may not be used if you charge for an eBook, except by following +the terms of the trademark license, including paying royalties for use +of the Project Gutenberg trademark. If you do not charge anything for +copies of this eBook, complying with the trademark license is very +easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose such as creation +of derivative works, reports, performances and research. Project +Gutenberg eBooks may be modified and printed and given away--you may +do practically ANYTHING in the United States with eBooks not protected +by U.S. copyright law. Redistribution is subject to the trademark +license, especially commercial redistribution. +</div> + +<div style='margin:0.83em 0; font-size:1.1em; text-align:center'>START: FULL LICENSE<br /> +<span style='font-size:smaller'>THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE<br /> +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK</span> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +To protect the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg”), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full +Project Gutenberg™ License available with this file or online at +www.gutenberg.org/license. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg™ +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or +destroy all copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in your +possession. If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a +Project Gutenberg™ electronic work and you do not agree to be bound +by the terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person +or entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.B. “Project Gutenberg” is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works if you follow the terms of this +agreement and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works. See paragraph 1.E below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation (“the +Foundation” or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection +of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works. Nearly all the individual +works in the collection are in the public domain in the United +States. If an individual work is unprotected by copyright law in the +United States and you are located in the United States, we do not +claim a right to prevent you from copying, distributing, performing, +displaying or creating derivative works based on the work as long as +all references to Project Gutenberg are removed. Of course, we hope +that you will support the Project Gutenberg™ mission of promoting +free access to electronic works by freely sharing Project Gutenberg™ +works in compliance with the terms of this agreement for keeping the +Project Gutenberg™ name associated with the work. You can easily +comply with the terms of this agreement by keeping this work in the +same format with its attached full Project Gutenberg™ License when +you share it without charge with others. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are +in a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, +check the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this +agreement before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, +distributing or creating derivative works based on this work or any +other Project Gutenberg™ work. The Foundation makes no +representations concerning the copyright status of any work in any +country other than the United States. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other +immediate access to, the full Project Gutenberg™ License must appear +prominently whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg™ work (any work +on which the phrase “Project Gutenberg” appears, or with which the +phrase “Project Gutenberg” is associated) is accessed, displayed, +performed, viewed, copied or distributed: +</div> + +<blockquote> + <div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> + This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most + other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions + whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms + of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online + at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you + are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws + of the country where you are located before using this eBook. + </div> +</blockquote> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is +derived from texts not protected by U.S. copyright law (does not +contain a notice indicating that it is posted with permission of the +copyright holder), the work can be copied and distributed to anyone in +the United States without paying any fees or charges. If you are +redistributing or providing access to a work with the phrase “Project +Gutenberg” associated with or appearing on the work, you must comply +either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 or +obtain permission for the use of the work and the Project Gutenberg™ +trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg™ electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any +additional terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms +will be linked to the Project Gutenberg™ License for all works +posted with the permission of the copyright holder found at the +beginning of this work. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg™ +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg™. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg™ License. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including +any word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access +to or distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg™ work in a format +other than “Plain Vanilla ASCII” or other format used in the official +version posted on the official Project Gutenberg™ website +(www.gutenberg.org), you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense +to the user, provide a copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means +of obtaining a copy upon request, of the work in its original “Plain +Vanilla ASCII” or other form. Any alternate format must include the +full Project Gutenberg™ License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg™ works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +provided that: +</div> + +<div style='margin-left:0.7em;'> + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg™ works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is owed + to the owner of the Project Gutenberg™ trademark, but he has + agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments must be paid + within 60 days following each date on which you prepare (or are + legally required to prepare) your periodic tax returns. Royalty + payments should be clearly marked as such and sent to the Project + Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the address specified in + Section 4, “Information about donations to the Project Gutenberg + Literary Archive Foundation.” + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg™ + License. You must require such a user to return or destroy all + copies of the works possessed in a physical medium and discontinue + all use of and all access to other copies of Project Gutenberg™ + works. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of + any money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days of + receipt of the work. + </div> + + <div style='text-indent:-0.7em'> + • You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg™ works. + </div> +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work or group of works on different terms than +are set forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing +from the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the manager of +the Project Gutenberg™ trademark. Contact the Foundation as set +forth in Section 3 below. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +works not protected by U.S. copyright law in creating the Project +Gutenberg™ collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may +contain “Defects,” such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate +or corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other +intellectual property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or +other medium, a computer virus, or computer codes that damage or +cannot be read by your equipment. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the “Right +of Replacement or Refund” described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg™ trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg™ electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium +with your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you +with the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in +lieu of a refund. If you received the work electronically, the person +or entity providing it to you may choose to give you a second +opportunity to receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If +the second copy is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing +without further opportunities to fix the problem. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you ‘AS-IS’, WITH NO +OTHER WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT +LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of +damages. If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement +violates the law of the state applicable to this agreement, the +agreement shall be interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or +limitation permitted by the applicable state law. The invalidity or +unenforceability of any provision of this agreement shall not void the +remaining provisions. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg™ electronic works in +accordance with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the +production, promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg™ +electronic works, harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, +including legal fees, that arise directly or indirectly from any of +the following which you do or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this +or any Project Gutenberg™ work, (b) alteration, modification, or +additions or deletions to any Project Gutenberg™ work, and (c) any +Defect you cause. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg™ +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of +computers including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It +exists because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations +from people in all walks of life. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg™’s +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg™ collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg™ and future +generations. To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation and how your efforts and donations can help, see +Sections 3 and 4 and the Foundation information page at www.gutenberg.org. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non-profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation’s EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent permitted by +U.S. federal laws and your state’s laws. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation’s business office is located at 809 North 1500 West, +Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887. Email contact links and up +to date contact information can be found at the Foundation’s website +and official page at www.gutenberg.org/contact +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ depends upon and cannot survive without widespread +public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine-readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To SEND +DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any particular state +visit <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/donate/">www.gutenberg.org/donate</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Please check the Project Gutenberg web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. To +donate, please visit: www.gutenberg.org/donate +</div> + +<div style='display:block; font-size:1.1em; margin:1em 0; font-weight:bold'> +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg™ electronic works +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project +Gutenberg™ concept of a library of electronic works that could be +freely shared with anyone. For forty years, he produced and +distributed Project Gutenberg™ eBooks with only a loose network of +volunteer support. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Project Gutenberg™ eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as not protected by copyright in +the U.S. unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not +necessarily keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper +edition. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Most people start at our website which has the main PG search +facility: <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This website includes information about Project Gutenberg™, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. +</div> + +</div> + +</body> +</html> + + diff --git a/3230-h/images/bar.gif b/3230-h/images/bar.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d79b1f2 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/bar.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cover.jpg b/3230-h/images/cover.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..82fbb94 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cover.jpg diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf01.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf01.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..00af554 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf01.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf02.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf02.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..27a8e47 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf02.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf03.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf03.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f882be --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf03.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf04.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf04.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d94ec0b --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf04.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf05.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf05.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e367b75 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf05.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf06.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf06.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d96e2e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf06.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf07.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf07.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2f3f2e9 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf07.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf08.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf08.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..8f7282a --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf08.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf09.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf09.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..199dccd --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf09.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/cpf10.gif b/3230-h/images/cpf10.gif Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4db9c8 --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/cpf10.gif diff --git a/3230-h/images/fairy.jpg b/3230-h/images/fairy.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..336489a --- /dev/null +++ b/3230-h/images/fairy.jpg |
