uld dare call her plain or unlovable. Then she longed to hold some
secret charm, so that whoever she should desire to do so, should love
and caress her. But still no bright fairy stooped down from the skies to
change her black, stiff hair into shining ringlets, or her dark-brown
skin into the fairness of that of her sisters; and so Ruth only read,
and wondered, and wished.

One day when, as usual, Ruth had found herself quite alone,--Grace and
Jessie had gone to take a walk, and her mother was reading by
herself,--she had taken her book, and sat down beneath the shade of a
broad tree in the garden. She was reading the story of a fair princess,
who had many suitors and splendid gifts, and who was called the Queen of
Beauty.

"Alas!" she cried, "why was not I beautiful, so I might be loved! Then I
should not be the sober, odd thing I am now!"

"Would you, then, so much like to be beautiful, dear child?" said a
voice close at her side, and, when Ruth looked up, she saw an old woman
whom she never had seen before. She was clothed in a long blue dress,
and her face was full of motherly love. Ruth's heart was filled with
gladness, for seldom had so affectionate a glance been shed on her; and
when the old woman bent down and kissed her, how all remembrance of the
indifference of father, mother, friends, vanished from her mind, and it
seemed that her whole life was given to her new friend, that she might
do with her whatever she willed!

All strangeness at her sudden appearance vanished, too, as soon as she
had kissed her. Ruth felt under the control of a great power, and
watched her movements with as much love as confidence.

When the old woman had looked into Ruth's eyes, and had seen the
thoughts which beamed there, she looked up into the sky, and beckoned to
a very light, beautiful cloud, which was sailing carelessly along.

She had no sooner done this than the cloud began to descend slowly
towards them, just as though it understood her summons, and, when it
had reached the place where she stood, it remained motionless.

[Illustration: THE OLD WOMAN AND THE ENCHANTED SONG.]

Then she took up little Ruth in her arms, and stepped on to the cloud
and sat down; and, after arranging herself and Ruth quite comfortably,
she said something, which Ruth could not understand, and then the cloud
began to rise, moving as easily as it had done before it came down from
the sky.

While they were going up, Ruth was amazed to see h