“You careless boy,” she said. “Why can’t you learn to be accurate? It’s the merest chance you got me. You should have stated your problem more clearly, and you should have said seven thousand _Arithmetic_ Fairies. Why suppose you had found one fairy in your desk, and it had been the Grammar Fairy, or the Football Fairy—what would you have done then?” “_Is_ there a Football Fairy?” Edwin asked. “Of course. There’s a fairy for everything you have to learn. There’s a Patience Fairy, and a Good-temper Fairy, and a Fairy to teach people to make bread, and another to teach them to make love. Didn’t you really know that?” “No,” said Edwin, “but I say, look here——” “I am looking,” she said, fixing her bright eyes on Edwin’s goggling ones, exactly as at their first meeting. “No—I mean—oh—I say—” he said. “So I hear,” she said. “No, but—no kid,” said he. “Of course there isn’t any kid,” said she. “Dear, kind, pretty Fairy,” Edwin began again. “That’s better,” said the Fairy. “Didn’t you hear all I was saying to you yesterday, when the water was dripping from the ceiling all over the room?” “From nineteen several spots. Of course I did.” “Well then,” said Edwin. “You mean that you’re tired of having things happen when you do your sums correctly? You prefer the old way!” “Yes, _please_,” said Edwin, “if you’re sure you don’t mind? I know you meant it for kindness, but, oh, it is most beastly, when you get into the thick of it.” He was thinking of the elephants, I fancy. “I only did it to please you,” said the Fairy pouting. “I’ll make everything as it was before. Does _that_ please you? And there’s your third wish. You know we always give three wishes. It’s customary in the profession. What would you like?” Edwin had not attended properly to this speech, so he had only heard “as it was before” and then “What would you like?” So he said, “I should like to see you again some day.” The Arithmetic Fairy smiled at him, and her beauty grew more and more radiant. She had not expected this. “I made sure you would ask for a pony or a cricket bat or a pair of white mice,” she said. “You _shall_ see me again, Edwin. Goodbye.” And the bright vision faded away in a dim mist of rosy permutations. When Edwin got home he heard that a model engine had been discovered in the larder, and had been given to his younger brother. There are some wrongs, some sorrows, to which even a pen like mine cannot hope to do justice. * * * * * Edwin is now a quiet-looking grown-up person in a black frock coat; and his hair is slowly withdrawing itself from the top of his learned head. I suppose it feels itself unworthy to cover so great a brain. The fairy has been with him, unseen, this many a year. The other day he saw her. He had been Senior Wrangler, of course; that was nothing to Edwin. And he was Astronomer Royal, but that, after all, he had a right to expect.