s we who celebrate his birthday in
these later years believe. They had a grand christening, too;
Grandfather Ball was there, and Colonel Bradford Custis, and the Lees,
the Jeffersons, the Randolphs, the Slaughters--yes, all the old
families of Virginia were represented, and there was feasting and
merry-making for three days! Such cheer prevailed, in fact, that even
Miss Dorcas Culpeper, spinster, and Lawrence, the happy father, became
completely reconciled. Soothed by the grateful influences of barbecued
meats and draughts of rum and sugar, Lawrence led Miss Culpeper through
the minuet.

"A very proper name for the babe?" suggested Miss Culpeper.

"Yes, we will call him George, in honor of his majesty our king," said
Lawrence Washington, with the pride that comes of loyalty and
patriotism.

SWEET-ONE-DARLING AND THE DREAM-FAIRIES

A wonderful thing happened one night; those who never heard of it
before will hardly believe it. Sweet-One-Darling was lying in her
little cradle with her eyes wide open, and she was trying to make up
her mind whether she should go to sleep or keep awake. This is often a
hard matter for little people to determine. Sweet-One-Darling was
ready for sleep and dreams; she had on her nightgown and her nightcap,
and her mother had kissed her good-night. But the day had been so very
pleasant, with its sunshine and its play and its many other diversions,
that Sweet-One-Darling was quite unwilling to give it up. It was high
time for the little girl to be asleep; the robins had ceased their
evening song in the maple; a tree-toad croaked monotonously outside,
and a cricket was chirping certain confidences to the strange shadows
that crept furtively everywhere in the yard and garden. Some folk
believe that the cricket is in league with the Dream-Fairies; they say
that what sounds to us like a faint chirping merely is actually the
call of the cricket to the Dream-Fairies to let those pretty little
creatures know that it is time for them to come with their dreams. I
more than half believe this myself, for I have noticed that it is while
the cricket is chirping that the Dream-Fairies come with their
wonderful sights that seem oftentimes very real.

Sweet-One-Darling heard the voice of the cricket, and may be she knew
what it meant. There are a great many things which Sweet-One-Darling
knows all about but of which she says nothing to other people; although
she is only a year old, she is