part of the country.

Twinkle hadn't lived very long in this section of Dakota, for her father
had just bought the new farm that lay beside the gulch. So the big ditch
was a great delight to her, and she loved to wander through it and pick
the berries and flowers that never grew on the plains above.

To-day she crept carefully down the path back of the house and soon
reached the bottom of the gulch. Then she began to search for the
berries; but all were gone in the places where she had picked them
before; so she found she must go further along.

She sat down to rest for a time, and by and by she happened to look up
at the other side and saw a big cluster of bushes hanging full of ripe
blueberries--just about half way up the opposite bank.

She had never gone so far before, but if she wanted the berries for
papa's supper she knew she must climb up the slope and get them; so she
rose to her feet and began to walk in that direction. It was all new to
the little girl, and seemed to her like a beautiful fairyland; but she
had no idea that the gulch was enchanted. Soon a beetle crawled across
her path, and as she stopped to let it go by, she heard it say:

"Look out for the line of enchantment! You'll soon cross it, if you
don't watch out."

"What line of enchantment?" asked Twinkle.

"It's almost under your nose," replied the little creature.

"I don't see anything at all," she said, after looking closely.

"Of course you don't," said the beetle. "It isn't a mark, you know, that
any one can see with their eyes; but it's a line of enchantment, just
the same, and whoever steps over it is sure to see strange things and
have strange adventures."

"I don't mind that," said Twinkle.

"Well, I don't mind if you don't," returned the beetle, and by that time
he had crept across the path and disappeared underneath a big rock.

Twinkle went on, without being at all afraid. If the beetle spoke truly,
and there really was an invisible line that divided the common, real
world from an enchanted country, she was very eager to cross it, as any
little girl might well be. And then it occurred to her that she must
have crossed the enchanted line before she met the beetle, for otherwise
she wouldn't have understood his language, or known what he was talking
about. Children don't talk with beetles in the real world, as Twinkle
knew very well, and she was walking along soberly, thinking this over,
when suddenly a voice cried out to h