I will
give you something that will enable you to see him once every day.'

'You?' cried Tephany, stupefied at discovering that the beggar knew all
about her affairs, but the old woman did not hear her.

'Take this long copper pin,' she went on, 'and every time you stick it
in your dress Mother Bourhis will be obliged to leave the house in order
to go and count her cabbages. As long as the pin is in your dress you
will be free, and your aunt will not come back until you have put it in
its case again.' Then, rising, she nodded to Tephany and vanished.

The girl stood where she was, as still as a stone. If it had not been
for the pin in her hands she would have thought she was dreaming. But by
that token she knew it was no common old woman who had given it to her,
but a fairy, wise in telling what would happen in the days to come. Then
suddenly Tephany's eyes fell on the clothes, and to make up for lost
time she began to wash them with great vigour.

* * * * *

Next evening, at the moment when Denis was accustomed to wait for her in
the shadow of the cow-house, Tephany stuck the pin in her dress, and at
the very same instant Barbaik took up her _sabots_ or wooden shoes and
went through the orchard and past to the fields, to the plot where the
cabbages grew. With a heart as light as her footsteps, the girl ran from
the house, and spent her evening happily with Denis. And so it was for
many days after that. Then, at last, Tephany began to notice something,
and the something made her very sad.

At first Denis seemed to find the hours that they were together fly as
quickly as she did, but when he had taught her all the songs he knew,
and told her all the plans he had made for growing rich and a great man,
he had nothing more to say to her, for he, like a great many other
people, was fond of talking himself, but not of listening to any one
else. Sometimes, indeed, he never came at all, and the next evening he
would tell Tephany that he had been forced to go into the town on
business, but though she never reproached him she was not deceived and
saw plainly that he no longer cared for her as he used to do.

Day by day her heart grew heavier and her cheeks paler, and one evening,
when she had waited for him in vain, she put her water-pot on her
shoulder and went slowly down to the spring. On the path in front of her
stood the fairy who had given her the pin, and as she glanced at Tephany
she