fled from the room. Her worst fears were on the point of being
realized.

And after tea, when they were sitting as usual in the long parlor, Mr.
Franklin, with some hesitation and much embarrassment, informed them
that he was engaged to be married to Miss Hester Gordon, of Albany.

[TO BE CONTINUED.]

[Illustration: TWO FAIRY SPONGES]

BY WILLIAM HAMILTON GIBSON.

[Illustration: Decorative T]

he pretty works of my fairy and his companions in mischief are seen on
every hand from spring until winter, but few of us have ever seen the
fay, for Puck is no myth nor Ariel a creature of the poet's fancy. Their
prototype existed in entomological entity and demoralizing
mischievousness ages before the traditional fay, in diminutive human
form, had been dreamt of. The quaint bow-legged little "brownies" which
have brought our entire land beneath the witching spell of their
drollery can scarce claim prestige in the ingenuity of their mischief,
nor can the droll doings of imps and elves chronicled in the folk-lore
of many an ancient people begin to match the actual doings of the real,
live, busy little fairy whose works abound in meadow, wood, and copse,
and which any of us may discover if we can once be brought to realize
that our imp is visible. Then we must not forget that ideal type of the
true "fairy"--a paragon of beauty and goodness, with golden hair and
dazzling crown of brilliants, with her airy costume of gossamer begemmed
and spangled, her dainty twinkling feet and gorgeously painted butterfly
wings. And we all remember that wonderful wand which she carried so
gracefully, and whose simple touch could evoke such a train of
surprising consequences.

And who shall say that our pretty fay is a myth, or her magic wand a
wild creation of the fancy? May we not see the wonder-workings of that
potent wand on every hand, even though our fairy has eluded us while she
cast the spell? There are a host of these wee fairies continually
flitting about among the trees plotting all sorts of mischief, and
leaving an astonishing witness of their visitation in their trail as
they pass from leaf to leaf or twig to twig. But these fairies, like
those of Grimm and Laboulaye, are agile little atoms, and are not to be
caught in their pranks if they know it, and even though our eye chanced
to rest on one of them, it is doubtful whether we would recognize him,
so different is the guise of these _real_ fairies from those invented
C