to
eat; cunning little things they were,--five of them, all fat and soft,
and with such funny little tails."

"What became of them?"

"Oh, they moved away. They left before I did. As soon as they were old
enough, Mother Field-mouse went. She said she couldn't stand the court
fairies. They were always playing tricks on her, stopping up the door of
her house with sticks and acorns, and making faces at her babies until
they almost drove them into fits. So after that I left too."

"Where did you go?"

"Oh, hither and yon. Mostly where there were little sick boys and
girls."

"Do you like little boys?"

"Yes, when they don't cry," said the Counterpane Fairy, staring at him
very hard.

"Well, I was lonely," said Teddy. "I wanted my mamma."

"Yes, I know, but you oughtn't to have cried. I came to you, though,
because you were lonely and sick, and I thought maybe you would like me
to show you a story."

"Do you mean tell me a story?" asked Teddy.

"No," said the fairy, "I mean show you a story. It's a game I invented
after I joined the Counterpane Fairies. Choose any one of the squares of
the counterpane and I will show you how to play it. That's all you have
to do,--to choose a square."

Teddy looked the counterpane over carefully. "I think I'll choose that
yellow square," he said, "because it looks so nice and bright."

"Very well," said the Counterpane Fairy. "Look straight at it and don't
turn your eyes away until I count seven times seven and then you shall
see the story of it."

Teddy fixed his eyes on the square and the fairy began to count.
"One--two--three--four," she counted; Teddy heard her voice, thin and
clear as the hissing of the logs on the hearth. "Don't look away from
the square," she cried. "Five--six--seven"--it seemed to Teddy that the
yellow silk square was turning to a mist before his eyes and wrapping
everything about him in a golden glow. "Thirteen--fourteen"--the fairy
counted on and on. "Forty-six--forty-seven--forty-eight--FORTY-NINE!"

At the words forty-nine, the Counterpane Fairy clapped her hands and
Teddy looked about him. He was no longer in a golden mist. He was
standing in a wonderful enchanted garden. The sky was like the golden
sky at sunset, and the grass was so thickly set with tiny yellow flowers
that it looked like a golden carpet. From this garden stretched a long
flight of glass steps. They reached up and up and up to a great golden
castle with shining domes and tu