st have
brought it back to me,' she thought."

"And was the cupboard door still in the wall?" I asked eagerly.

"Yes," said Miss Goldy-hair; "and when Letty, still hardly awake, said
something to Hester about whether it had always been there, Hester
laughed at her and said, 'Yes, of course; had Letty never seen inside
it?--it was where mother kept the best linen.' And so Letty said no more
about it--she knew she would only have been laughed at and perhaps
scolded, and yet she knew there was nothing wrong in her beautiful
secret, so she just kept it in her own little heart.

"The days went on, and life seemed now quite a different thing to Letty;
through all the tiredness and dulness the thought of the fairy garden
which she was free to enter cheered and strengthened her. She did not go
_very_ often--it would not perhaps have been good for her to go too
constantly--but every moonlight night she was sure to wake at the right
moment, and if I had time I could tell you many things of the new
beauties she found at each visit. But there came a time--it was
miserable, cold, rainy winter weather, and the sky was so covered with
clouds that neither sunlight nor moonlight could get through--when for
several weeks Letty had no chance of getting to the garden--the moon
never shone, and do what she would she never woke up. She grew impatient
and discontented; she did her work less willingly, and answered crossly
when her mother reproved her. And one night she went to bed in a very
bad humour, saying to herself the dove had deceived her, or some
nonsense like that. Two or three hours later she woke suddenly--to her
delight the moon was shining brightly. Up jumped Letty and got her key
ready. It slipped as usual into the lock, but, alas! do what she would
she could not turn it. She pulled and pushed, she twisted about and
tried to turn it by main force. Fortunately it was a fairy key,
otherwise it certainly would have been broken. And at last in despair
she sat down on the edge of her bed and cried. Suddenly the words came
into her mind--'Be good and gentle and do your work well--if the door is
ever closed to you it will be by your own fault,' and Letty's conscience
whispered to her that it _was_ by her own fault."

Miss Goldy-hair paused a minute as if she wanted to hear what we had to
say.

"And did she never get in again?" said Tom. "Oh, poor Letty!"

"Oh yes," said Miss Goldy-hair, "she took her punishment well, and
though