The Counterpane Fairy | Page 8

I must," said the Counterpane Fairy. "I hear your mother
coming."
"But will you come back again?" cried Teddy.
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!"
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.

CHAPTER SECOND
.
THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF.
THE next morning when Teddy awoke it was still very early; so early
that even Hannah was not yet stirring.
Outside everything was wrapped in a silvery mist, and now and then a
drop of moisture plumped down on the porch roof.
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.
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.
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.
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.
"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?"
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,
well! It's steeper than it was yesterday. I thought I should never get
across that satin square, it was so slippery."
"Shall I put my knees down?" asked Teddy, moving them.
"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."
"Oh, yes!" cried Teddy; "please do; and let me go to the golden castle
again."
"No, I can't do that," said the Counterpane Fairy, "for that was
yesterday's story, and this will be another."
"But what became of the princess?" asked Teddy.

"Oh! she married the hero, of course," said the fairy.
"But I thought I was the hero."
"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."
"Well, I will," said Teddy. "May I choose that green square?"
"Yes," said the fairy. "Now fix your eyes on it while I count."
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.
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.
"Now you are an elf, you know," he heard the fairy say.
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.
Teddy floated through the air lighter