oloring, and the clearing was
filled with beautiful flowers and the music of birds. And it was so
beautiful I stopped and watched and listened.

"It seemed as if hundreds of children were playing around me, and
although I could not hear them yet it seemed to me that I felt they were
shouting and laughing at their play!"

"How wonderful it must have been!" said his wife.

"It was indeed very wonderful, mother. And when I returned I again
stopped at the same place and sat and listened to the singing of the
waters and the birds, and I saw the wild creatures come down into the
clearing and act as if they were being fed, and all the time I seemed
to feel the laughter and happy shouting of children at play. And a most
delightful feeling of contentment and happiness came over me as if I sat
within the borders of Fairyland!

"Then as I stooped to drink of the tinkling waters before I started on
my way home, I saw, tied to a flower growing in the water, the tiny
little bottle with the note inside which I had floated off a long time
ago, so I brought it home with me!"

And from his knapsack the man took the tiny bottle and placed it on the
table before his wife.

"I wish we knew just who tied the bottle to the flower!" said the wife
as she picked the bottle up to look at it. And because the bottle had
been used by Sally Migrundy, the two good people suddenly knew all about
Sally Migrundy, the magic little cottage, and the happy children who
lived there.

Every year the man takes his wife, and together they walk down the
tinkling stream until they came to the exact center of the great
whispering forest; there they sit for hours at a time, feeling the
happiness that overflows from the hearts of Sally Migrundy and the
children. And while the good couple have not been able to see the
children or Sally Migrundy, or even the tiny magic cottage, they know
they are all there, for at times they can hear the laughter and once
in a while they feel the touch of a tiny hand. And when they return to
their home upon the hill they find they have received enough happiness
at the clearing beside the tinkling, singing water to last them for a
whole year.

[Illustration]

[Illustration]

HOW JOHNNY CRICKET SAW SANTA CLAUS

When the first frost came and coated the leaves with its film of
sparkles, Mamma Cricket, Papa Cricket, Johnny Cricket and Grandpa
Cricket decided it was time they moved into their winter home.

Papa and