go home and ask my mother. I don't know whether she'll let
me."

"You won't stay long, will you?"

"No, I won't," promised Harriett. Then she put on her jacket and hat and
ran down-stairs.

Teddy went on with his painting by himself for a while, but it seemed
to him Harriett was gone a long time. He called his mother once, and she
came to the foot of the stairs and told him she couldn't come up just
yet.

Then Teddy began thinking of the Counterpane Fairy, and the stories she
had shown him. He wondered if she wouldn't come to see him to-day. She
always came when he was lonely, and he was quite sure he was getting
lonely now. Yes, he knew he was.

"Well," said a little voice just back of the counterpane hill, "it's not
quite so steep to-day, and that's a comfort." There was the little fairy
just appearing above the tops of his knees,--brown hood, brown cloak,
brown staff, and all. She sat down with her staff in her hand and nodded
to him, smiling. "Good-morning," she said.

"Good-morning," said Teddy. "Mrs. Fairy, I was wondering whether you
wouldn't like it if I kept my knees down, and then there wouldn't be any
hill."

"No," said the fairy, "I like to be up high so that I can look about
me, only it's hard climbing sometimes. Now, how about a story? Would you
like to see one to-day?"

"Oh, yes!" cried Teddy. "Indeed, I would."

"Then which square will you choose? Make haste, for I haven't much
time."

"I think I'll take that red one," said Teddy.

"Very good," said the fairy, and then she began to count.

As she counted, the red square spread and glowed until it seemed to
Teddy that he was wrapped in a mist of ruddy light. Through it he
heard the voice of the Counterpane Fairy counting on and on, and as she
counted he heard, with her voice, another sound,--at first very faintly,
then more and more clearly: clink-clank! clink-clank! clink-clank! It
reminded him a little of the ticking of the clock on the mantle, only it
was more metallic.

"FORTY-NINE!" cried the Counterpane Fairy, clapping her hands.

* * * * * * * *

And now the sound rang loud and clear in Teddy's ears; it was the
beating of hammers upon anvils.

When Teddy looked about him he was standing on a road that ran along the
side of a mountain. All along this road were openings that looked like
the mouths of caverns, and from these openings poured the ceaseless
sound of beating, and a ruddy glow that redden