The Counterpane Fairy | Page 5

I came to you, though,
because you were lonely and sick, and I thought maybe you would like
me to show you a story."
"Do you mean tell me a story?" asked Teddy.
"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."
Teddy looked the counterpane over carefully. "I think I'll choose that
yellow square," he said, "because it looks so nice and bright."
"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."
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!"
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.
"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."
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.
"Yes," said Teddy, "I will do it."
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.
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.
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."
Then Teddy turned his face toward the castle, and in a moment he was
standing before the great shining gates.
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.
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.
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:
"In and out and out and in, Quick as a flash I weave and spin. Some
may mistake and some forget, But I'll have my spider-web finished
yet."
When Teddy heard the song, he knew that someone must be awake in
the enchanted castle, so he began looking about him.
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