Katharine Pyle

“ Beyond was a cave, just such as he had often wished he could live in, with a rough table and chair, old kegs, and a heap of rubbish in one corner. On each side of the cave was a heavy door studded with iron nails. “I will just see where these doors lead to,” said Teddy to himself, laying his trap and his shovel behind one of the kegs.
As he reached the first door and put his hand on it he heard someone singing the other side of it as sweetly and clearly as a bird, and this is what the voice sang:
“In field and meadow the grasses grow;
The clouds are white and the winds they blow. ”

“ But the Mother Bear only shook her head. She had been doing nothing since she saw that Sprawley was an ice-merman but sit and rock herself backward and forward and whine. “I couldn’t go, my dear; I couldn’t indeed,” she said. “I’m all of a tremble now to think how that dreadful merman has been playing with Fatty and Dumpy day after day and I never knew it.”
“Then I’ll go by myself,” said Father Bear, gruffly, “and leave the children home with you. But you can go, Fairy,” he said to Teddy. “I’ll carry you on my back if you like, and maybe you’ll see me catch a young walrus. ”

“ The more the Black King does, the more she grieves, but she is so very beautiful that the King would deny her nothing except to let her go home to her father.”
“I should like to see a princess,” said Teddy.
“So you shall,” said the fairy, “for you are a great magician now, and you have come here to do what no other hero in the world dares to do; you have come to rescue the Princess Aureline and carry her back to her own country.”
“Do you mean I am a real magician?” asked Teddy.
“Why, yes,” said the fairy. “Don’t you see you are dressed in a magician’s robe? ”

“ Teddy looked as hard as he could, and after a while he thought he did see the shadowy roofs and turrets of a great gray castle through the mist.
“I think I do,” he said.
“Well,” said the fairy, “that is where the dreams live, and every evening they go sailing past here, on their way to the people who are asleep, and I generally come down to see them go by. Look! look! There goes one now.” ”

“ That’s nothing but cheese,” cried Teddy.
“Cheese! cheese!” cried the robber-magician, stamping his foot in a rage; “I tell you it’s gold.”
“It isn’t! it’s cheese!” said Teddy. “Look! I have some just like it; I’ll show you,” and running to the keg where he had left his trap he pulled it out and held it up for the robber to see.
As soon as the robber-magician saw the cheese in the trap his fingers began to work and his mouth to water. “Oh, what a fine rich piece of gold!” he cried. “How do you get it out?” ”

“ Stepping to the nearest cavern he looked in, and there he saw the whole inside of the mountain was hollowed out into forges that opened into each other be means of rocky arches. In every forge were little dwarfs dressed in leather and hammering at pieces of red-hot iron that lay on the anvils.
As Teddy stood looking in he was so tall that his head almost touched the top of the doorway. He was dressed in a long red cloak, and under that he wore a robe fastened about the waist with a girdle of rubies that shone and sparkled in the light; upon his hand was a ruby ring. ”

“ 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?” ”

“ They reached up and up and up to a great golden castle with shining domes and turrets.
“Listen!” said the Counterpane Fairy. “In that golden castle there lies an enchanted princess. For more than a hundred years she has been lying there waiting for the hero who is to come and rescue her, and you are the hero who can do it if you will.”
With that the fairy led him to a little pool close by, and bade him look in the water. When Teddy looked, he saw himself standing there in the golden garden, and he did not appear as he ever had before. He was tall and strong and beautiful, like a hero. ”

“ The dwarfs laughed, and picking up an old nail that was on the floor they laid it upon the anvil.
Then Teddy raised the hammer, and the ruby of the ring he wore throbbed and burned until his hand was hot, and his arm was so strong that the hammer was like a feather in his grasp.
As he beat and turned the nail he sang, and it seemed to him that the fire sang with him, clear and thin, and sounding like the voice of the Counterpane Fairy,—
“Hammer and turn!
The fire must burn,
The coals must glow,
The bellows blow.
Beat, good hammer, loud and fast;
So the chain will be made at last. ”

“ I’m going to a little girl named Harriett.”
“Oh, I know her!” cried Teddy. “She’s my cousin. But why are you her dream? You’re not pretty.”
“I know I’m not pretty,” answered the dream, “and that’s why I’m going to her. She was to have had such a pretty dream to-night, but she ate a piece of plum-cake before she went to bed, so now I’m going to her instead of the other one.” ”

“ The rainbow had faded away, and Teddy was back in the great high-post bedstead again, with the silk coverlet drawn up over his knees, and the Counterpane Fairy still sitting on top of the hill. Teddy lay looking at her for a while in silence. “Mrs. Fairy, was that a true story like the others?” he asked her at last.
“How should I know?” asked the fairy. “Do I look as though I knew anything about rainbow children? You’d better ask Ellen McFinney; maybe she can tell you.”
“Well, I will,” said Teddy. “I mean to ask her just as soon as ever I’m well.” ”

“ Then turning to Teddy he said, “You eat meat, don’t you?”
“Yes, sir,” answered Teddy, timidly.
“Then that’s all right,” said the Father Bear. “Here, you children, take this fairy off and let him play with you.”
Two of the little bears, Fatty (who was the one who had been sucking his paws) and Dumpy, were delighted to have a new playmate, and they told him he might come over and slide down their hill, but the third one, Sprawley, scowled and grumbled. “Another one to be eating up our meat,” he said. “Just as if there weren’t enough of us without.” ”

“ As they drifted along, sometimes they saw a walrus with long tusks lying on the ice, or a soft-eyed seal. Once some strange little beings that looked like dwarfs, with goggle eyes and straggling black hair, caught hold of the block of ice, and lifting themselves out of the water made faces at Teddy, but the moment they saw the Counterpane Fairy their looked changed to one of fear, and with a queer gurgling cry they dropped from the ice and were gone. ”

“ At last she came to the very forge where Teddy was, but he had drawn back behind the stone archway and she did not see him. Gliding to the anvil, she stretched out her white finger and laid it upon the link that the dwarfs had made, and instantly, as soon as she touched it, the iron flew into pieces with a clink.
The dwarfs burst into a low wail, but the woman with the crown struck her hands together and stamped her foot in a rage. “Fools! fools!” she cried. “Not yet one link that will not fly into pieces at a touch. ”

“ Teddy bowed again, and then he set the chest on the ground, and drawing from his girdle an iron key he unlocked it and put back the lid. There was the paper circus, just as he and Harriett had cut it out: the acrobat and the lovely lady, the horses, the clown, the ring-master, — not one of them was left out.
With his magic wand, Teddy drew upon the ground a circle, and then, while everybody round craned and stretched their necks to see what he was about, he took out the figures and set them, one by one, in the ring. Then he waved his wand over them and cried “Abraca-dabraca-dee!” ”

“ The children from the rainbow walked slowly up the aisle between the row of beds, and, strangely enough, no one seemed to look at them or pay the least attention, any more than if they had not been there, and at last Teddy began to believe that they could not see them.
Often the little strange children stopped to smooth a pillow or to softly stroke the cheek or hand of one of the little earth children. ”

“ I wouldn’t keep them in the same tree with that gamblesome elf —no, not a night longer —for all the mice you could offer me.”
“But how can we get them away?” asked old Father Owl. “They can’t fly.”
“No, we can’t fly!” cried all the little owls. “Oh, what shall we do? Ow! Ow!”
“Can’t fly! They’ve got to fly,” said Mother Owl, “and you and I must help them. Back to the old tree we go this very night.”
After that there was a great to-do up in the hollow. Teddy watched it all lying on his stomach in the door of the knot-hole, for it was moonlight by this time and almost as bright as day. ”

“ Teddy did not go to sleep, however. He lay looking at the ice-roof of the cave and thinking how strange it was to be there. Presently he heard the Mother Bear say very softly, “Husband, husband, are you awake?”
“Yes, I am,” said the Father Bear. “What do you want?”
The Mother Bear sighed. “I don’t know how it is, husband,” she said, “but I never had a cub like Sprawley before. He is so naughty and mischievous that he keeps his little brother and sister whining all the time.” ”

“ Who are you, wonderful stranger, for there is no smith among all the dwarfs who can do what you have done?”
Then without a word Teddy raised his hand, and held it up with the palm turned toward them so that they saw the ruby in his ring, and when they saw it they shouted again in their wonder and joy. “It is King Fireheart himself come back to rule the country!” ”

“ I’m a gamblesome elf.
Old owl, you had better look out for yourself.”
The old owl looked in for a moment, and then without a word she flew back to her nest as fast as she could. Teddy ran over to the chimney and listened. He heard the old owl brush into the hollow above, and then he heard her saying in a frightened voice: “Husband, husband, what do you think! A gamblesome elf has come to live in old Granddaddy Thistletop’s house.”
“Oh, my tail-feathers!” cried old Father Owl aghast. “This is bad business; we’ll be having trouble and mischief all the time now. ”

“ Then Teddy turned and walked out of the great ice-chamber and down the hall, followed in silence by the dwarfs. As he went, the spearsmen started forward to lay hands upon him, but as soon as they saw the ruby ring they stood, every man stiffened just as he was, some leaning forward with outstretched arm, some with their spears lifted, some with their mouths open, but all of them turned to ice. ”

“ At last, after pausing at one of them, he turned to Teddy and nodded his head. “This is it,” he said; “this is where Harriett lives.”
“Why, it isn’t at all!” cried Teddy, indignantly. “My cousin Harriett doesn’t live in a hole! She lives in a great big house with doors and windows.”
“Well, anyway, this is her chimney,” said the dream, “and it’s the only way to get into her house from here. If you want to come, come; and if you don’t want to, why, stay,” and the dream sat down on the edge of the hole. ”

“ STARLEIN AND SILVERLING
Mis’ Thomas, Ann McFinney’s downstairs to see you about that sewing you said she could do for you,” said Hannah, putting her head in at the door. Mamma was sitting close to the bed playing a game of Old Maid with Teddy.
“Very well, Hannah; tell her I’ll be there in a moment,” she said.
“Oh, please don’t go yet,” said Teddy. “It’s my draw. Match! You’re the old maid. Oh, Mamma! You’re an old maid!” And he pointed his finger at her and laughed. ”

“ So Teddy stepped onto the shore, and the fairy pushed the block of ice out into the water, and waving her hand to him she drifted away across the open sea.
The Father Bear stood watching her until she was out of sight, and then he turned to Teddy. “Now, you Fairy,” he said, “you may climb up onto my back, and I’ll carry you to my wife; she’ll take good care of you for as long as the Counterpane Fairy chooses to leave you here.” ”

“ The Bird-maiden was very glad, but she said they must make haste, for it was almost time for the robber to come home; so she wrapped her cloak around her, and Teddy took her by the hand and together they ran to the door.
They had hardly reached the outer cave, however, when Teddy heard a loud bang that echoed and re-echoed from the walls.
“Alas! Alas!” cried the Bird-maiden, shrinking back and beginning to wring her hands, “we are too late. There comes the robber, and now we will never escape.”
She had scarcely said this when in marched the robber-magician sure enough. ”

“ Then Teddy told her all about standing by the lake and seeing the dreams go past, and how he had shut the ugly one up in the toy-closet.
Harriett listened with great interest. “Wasn’t that a funny dream?” she cried when he had ended.
“A dream!” said Teddy. “Why, that wasn’t a dream, Harriett. That’s the story the Counterpane Fairy showed me. And don’t you know you did dream about the bubbles?” ”

“ I can fix it all right.”
“How?” asked all the mermen together.
“Well, listen, and I’ll tell you,” said Sprawley. “To-morrow Father and Mother Bear are going hunting, and all of us little cubs are to go with them. I suppose this strange fairy cub will go with us, and when we stop to rest I’ll get him away from the others and near the edge of the water. You must come under the ice and break off the piece he is standing on, and float him far, far away toward the South until he melts.”
“Yes, yes! we’ll do it,” cried all the mermen jumping about and shouting. Then they turned to Sprawley. ”

“ They drew rein at the knot-hole, and the old fairy, skipping from his butterfly and never pausing to fasten it, tottered straight to Teddy and threw his arms about his neck. “Our preserver!” he cried. “And to think I should have called you a gamblesome elf! But never mind; I will make it up to you.”
Suddenly he turned and caught the blushing Rosine by the hand. “Here!” he cried; “she is yours, and you shall live with us, and learn to turn your toes up, and we will all be happy together.”
“But —but —” cried Teddy, starting back, “don’t you know? I’m not an elf at all. I’m—”
“Well, well! ”

“ Some of them moved on their stalks, opening and closing their petals softly like the wings of butterflies, some shone like jewels, and some seemed to change and throb as if with a hidden pulse of life. ”