The Counterpane Fairy Part 4

"Why, my darling, what a bright, happy face!" she said. "I think my little boy must be feeling better this morning."

CHAPTER THIRD. STARLEIN AND SILVERLING.

"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.

"Very well, Hannah; tell her I'll be there in a moment," she said.

"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.

"Why, so I am," said mamma. "Now you can shuffle the cards, and when I come back we'll have another game."

"Don't stay long," begged Teddy.

"I'll come back as soon as I can," said mamma, and then she went out.

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 ap.r.o.n, and told how her husband was out of work, and the children needed shoes.

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."

"I'd rather have a paper circus," said Teddy.

"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.

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.

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!"

"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.

"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 sc.r.a.p left from her wedding dress."

"Wait, wait," said the fairy, "till a body gets her breath. Now which one is it?"

"It's that one," said Teddy. "Will you tell me about it?"

"Why, yes," said the fairy, "if that's the one you want. Now fix your eyes on it while I count."

Then the Counterpane Fairy began to count. He heard her voice going on and on and on. "FORTY-NINE!" she cried.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!"

"Hush!" said she. "I'm listening."

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.

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 gra.s.s 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.

Presently it ceased and then the fairy turned to him and smiled.

"Oh, Counterpane Fairy!" cried Teddy, "may I go out into that garden?"

"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."

"Where are they?" asked Teddy.

"I can't tell you that, either," said the fairy, "but they're somewhere in the halls."

"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.

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.

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.

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.

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?"

"I came through the white square," said Teddy.

"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."

"Where has Silverling gone?" asked Teddy. "I must find him."

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."

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.

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.

"Never mind," cried Teddy, bravely, "you wait here and I'll go and find him. I found you and I'll find him too."

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.

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?"