call 'present.'"

"Will you really?" cried Teddy.

"Yis," said the little old woman, smiling, and her smile was just like
the smile of the Counterpane Fairy.

"And you'll give me whatever I take?"

"Yis," said the little old woman again.

Teddy put his hand in under the cover and caught hold of something hard
and cold. He pulled and pulled at it, and out it came; it was a little
iron shovel.

"You take something more," said the little old woman. Teddy hesitated,
but when he looked at her again he saw that she really meant it, so he
put his hand in and this time he pulled out a large iron key.

"Now try once more," said the little old woman, and this third time it
was a rat-trap baited with cheese, that Teddy drew from the basket.

"But what shall I do with them?" he asked.

"You keep dem," said the old Italian, "and you find you need dem by and
by." Then she rose, and pulling her cloak over the basket she took her
staff in her other hand and hobbled down the pathway.

Teddy slipped the key into his pocket, and holding the shovel and the
trap he ran down to the gate to open it for her. He stood looking
after her as she went on down the street, her staff striking the
bricks sharply, tap! tap! tap! Her back was certainly exactly like the
Counterpane Fairy's.

As he walked slowly up the path swinging his shovel by the handle, he
noticed that there was a rat-hole just back of the rain-butt, and he
thought what fun it would be to dig it out, so he put the cage down on
the ground and set to work with his shovel.

The earth broke away from the rat-hole in great clods, and he found it
so easy to dig that very soon he had made quite a big hole.

Then he saw that down in this hole there was a flight of stone steps
leading into the earth. "Why, isn't that funny!" said Teddy. "Right in
the back yard, too. I wonder where they go!"

Tucking the shovel under his arm and taking the trap in his hand, Teddy
stepped into the rat-hole and began to go down the stairs.

He went on down and down and down, and at last he came to an iron door,
and it was locked. Teddy tried it and knocked, but there was no answer.
He listened with his ear against it, but he heard nothing, and he was
just about to turn and go up the stairs again, when he remembered the
key the little old woman had given him.

He pulled it out of his pocket, and when he tried it in the keyhole
it fitted exactly. He turned it, the door flew open, and Teddy stepp