The Counterpane Fairy

noon, and everythi

put on the little blue dressing-gown that mamma had made for him, and she was so funny about ge

t and watching the chickens in the yard be

boy, and told him stories, and drew pictures with a blue pencil on a writing

Teddy were going to live some time --a house with a barn, and horses, and cow

boy was surprised when mamma came back from c

to talk seriously with papa. She told him she had stopped in at Mrs. McFinney's on her way home, and that she had

amma said that she thought so too; but that someone had been talking to little Ellen, and frightened her so tha

e girl there in the house by herself all the day, while

my books to amuse her-- some I had when I was sick? Beca

ay choose the ones you will give her, and perhaps papa will le

er the Ali Baba book and Robinson Crusoe, and I th

y finished there was a little rattle of china outside the door, and in came Hanna

The Venetian shutters were drawn, so that all the room was dim

house was very still, and the afternoon sun shone in thr

ack, for it seemed to him that he had been alone almost a

f the counterpane hill, and as soon as he heard it h

and stood looking down at him with a pleasant smile

on top of his knees. "And then did you

y, eagerly. "I hoped

" said the fairy. "And what s

y, "and it's most every color, like a

ow you that. Now fix your eyes

INE!" sh

* *

ed across the shining sky like a bridge. The clouds above them shone like opals, and far, far

. "I think we go as fast as an

to go than this," s

yo

ly she leaned back against the air as though it were a pillow, then she gave herself a little push

Teddy, "will you te

and how to push himself, and then he found he could do it quite well, and when Ellen

y's mind, and he cried, "Why, E

said the

can run a

ut that's becau

't be dreaming," said Te

but I think I'm dreaming, because I

t he was in a dream. After a while he said: "Ellen, don't you know, if you're

now about it," she cried. "You don't catch me going to a hos

dst of a group of little children, who were running along the rainbow bridge. They were all such pretty little childre

ever dreamed of. Some of them moved on their stalks, opening and closing their petals softly like the wings

ng back timidly when she saw the children, but Teddy spoke to th

end of the rainbow," said th

e me

child, staring at him with big e

are th

come alon

No, no! Come on and see where they're going." So Ellen reluctantly followed

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 g

children?" asked

ughing, and then he began to talk with the ot

nbow, and where should it go but right through the window of a great sq

he next thing he knew the little children were walking through the win

n, looking about her, half

eddy. "Seems as if I kn

ttle child. A few of the children were asleep, most of them were awake, but all looked pale and thin. Here and there at the s

rangely enough, no one seemed to look at them or pay the least attention, any more than i

smooth a pillow or to softly stroke the cheek

hen 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 in

man was sitting beside the child and fanning it. Suddenly its eyes opened, and

its hand. "What is it, dear?" asked the woman, bending over the child, b

ed, clapping their hands joyfully. "He

d, but Teddy could not understand what they said to it. The little child on th

hands to it as they moved away, and the eyes of the child on the

nt after they were out on the rainbow bridge again, high up above the

breath. "Oh! wasn't that lovely?"

remember now, for I saw a picture of it in one o

" cried the

a hosp

he drew another deep breath. "Well, if that's a hospita

let drawn up over his knees, and the Counterpane Fairy still sitting on top of the hill. Teddy lay lookin

though I knew anything about rainbow children? You'd

. "I mean to ask her just

little Ellen had at last consented to be taken to the hospital, and that perhaps when he s

NTERPAN