At this the stone opened, and she went into a beautiful little room, all lighted with fireflies and glow-worms. On the floor sat a fairy, busy mending a butterfly’s broken wing. ‘Do you live here all alone?’ asked Hope, as she drank honey and dew-drops which the busy ants had brought her. “Yes,” sighed the fairy sadly. “I used to live with the forest goblins--” “But they are bad,” interrupted Hope. “Father has told me stories about them.” “Not bad!” reproved the fairy “but they did not like me to help the wood-land folks. They made me come here, and said they would keep every one from seeing me. Nobody can enter without the pass-word, Hope. And I cannot be free until a prince comes to sing to me.” “The next morning the blacksmith awoke, and called Hope to him, but of course she did not come. He was very much frightened and called out all the village folk to help look for her. Then a strange thing happened. The blacksmith looked at the wall of his hut, and saw a message appear in letters of gold which said, ‘Whosoever shall find Hope shall be made by the fairies a Prince, and shall be given a beauteous castle.’ “The villagers started out, and with them a little apprentice lad searched too. Now, of course, the goblins kept every one away from the great green-grey stone, but in spite of all the goblin’s enchantments the apprentice lad came to the house of the fairy, because he had followed a little two-tailed bunny. And when he got there he was so happy he just sang, and sang, and as he sang his coarse village clothes fell off him and the royal robes of a Prince appeared in their place. “And so he took Hope back to the village with him, and the fairy flew out, singing and happy to be free. At the village there was great rejoicing, and they feasted at the Prince’s palace for a month and a day.” “Didn’t they get sick?” inquired Mildred. “And a few years later they were married.” “And lived happily ever after?” asked Eveline, anxiously. “And lived happily ever after!” I assured them. THE MUSIC CHARM (A Tiny Tot Rhyme) When the great man came to play He didn’t chase me far away, But let me stand beside him so That I could watch his fingers go. I never, never saw him make The very tiniest mistake.... And, say, I saw that player look At his =ten= fingers, =and= the book At once! So I =knew= there must be Some trick that he had hid from me! And maybe, when he’d gone away The spell that brought the tunes would stay! So when I felt that nobody Was bothering to notice me, I looked about that piano Inside and outside, high and low, To find that music. Timidly I pressed each finger on a key; Ma said it didn’t sound the same ... It sounded queer and sounded lame, But I don’t care, because some day I’ll make him charm it so’s to stay! And then maybe =I’ll= sit and look At =my= ten fingers and the book! THE TALE OF THE FRETFUL CHILD