ild talked with
the fairies that live in all things beautiful, clothed in robes of
sunlight and rainbow hues.

They would have taken her away from these friends but for one old man,
her grandfather, who said:

"The child will be better for the fresh air. Let her live while she
may."

So it was that she played and talked with the flowers and sang to the
brooks and listened to the stories of the forest trees that whispered
among themselves. None dared take her away.

One day she had been for a long ramble by a mighty river, and the sun
had sunk to the westward on its journey; but she turned not to the place
she called her home. Tired and worn out with her play, she lay on a rock
and slept.

In her sleep it seemed that a touch upon her forehead awakened in her a
vision of things she once had known, but had now almost forgotten. There
was the king's garden and the palace, and the other wonderful buildings,
tall and stately--mighty buildings which seemed to speak of mighty
builders, noble thoughts and great men's deeds. Some were even more
stately, some more humble, than the palace. But in all there was a sense
of grander, nobler life than the life those knew who were with her now,
and who, laughing, called her a dreamer.

And she heard a voice repeating, "I will return! I will! I will!"

Again she smiled as she recognized the voice. A feeling of intense
happiness and content came to her and she--awoke. More than ever it
seemed as if that other were the real life, and this a heavy dream.

[Illustration]

V

The twilight glow still lingered in the west and the evening breeze
called her to thoughts of home.

But she had learned wisdom, and when they asked her where she had been,
Eline said she had fallen asleep in the sunshine on a rock by the great
river. Which was true.

Of her dream she said nothing to any except to the old man who alone
seemed to understand her a little. He did not laugh, but looked with
thoughtful eyes intent, into the distance, away to the starlit sky, and
it seemed to her that he also was trying to remember a forgotten dream
of life. And seeing this she put her hand in his trustingly, and they
two knew well each other's thoughts though never a word was spoken.

It seemed to the old man that the child was leading him along a familiar
road to a home forgotten--after many weary days of wandering.

"There are some things the heart can say that wor