opped to smooth a pillow or to
softly stroke the cheek or hand of one of the little earth children.

Here and there one would linger behind the others, by some bed, and
after a moment would lay its bunch of flowers on the pillow. Then the
little child in the bed would turn its head and smile, even if it were
asleep, and its face would shine as if with some inward happiness. The
whole room seemed filled with the perfume of flowers, and Teddy wondered
that no one paid any attention to it.

At last they came to a bed where a little child was lying fast asleep,
and a woman was sitting beside the child and fanning it. Suddenly its
eyes opened, and the moment they turned toward the rainbow children,
Teddy knew that it saw them.

It lay looking for a moment and then it smiled and feebly tried to wave
its hand. "What is it, dear?" asked the woman, bending over the child,
but it paid no attention to her, for it was gazing at the rainbow
children.

"Oh, he sees us! he sees us!" they cried, clapping their hands joyfully.
"He'll be coming across the rainbow soon."

Then the rainbow children gathered about the bed and began talking to
the child, but Teddy could not understand what they said to it. The
little child on the bed seemed to understand them though, and it smiled
and tried to nod its head.

"Come soon! Come soon!" cried the little children, waving their hands
to it as they moved away, and the eyes of the child on the bed followed
them wistfully, as though it were eager to follow.

Teddy and Ellen still went with the other little children, and a moment
after they were out on the rainbow bridge again, high up above the
world, but they were alone, for the little strange children were gone.

Ellen stood still and drew a long breath. "Oh! wasn't that lovely?" she
sighed. "I wonder where it was!"

"I know where it was!" cried Teddy suddenly. "I remember now, for I saw
a picture of it in one of papa's magazines. That was a hospital, Ellen."

"A hospital!" cried the little girl.

"Yes, a hospital."

Ellen did not say anything for some time, but at last she drew another
deep breath. "Well, if that's a hospital I shouldn't mind going to a
place like that," she said.

The rainbow had faded away, and Teddy was back in the great high-post
bedstead again, with the silk coverlet drawn up over his knees, and the
Counterpane Fairy still sitting on top of the hill. Teddy lay looking at
her for a while in silence. "Mrs. Fairy,