"I was thinking of you," he replied. "Let us sit on the end of the mantel and I will play to you. What would you like to hear?" "Play something sad," said the little Shepherdess, for, like all girls, she wanted to cry when she was happiest. "There," said the Cat, curling herself up for a nap, "I am glad that is settled. She never would have given in if he had not looked at the Flower Girl. These girls are queer creatures," she said, closing her eyes. HOW THE BUTTERCUP GREW YELLOW [Illustration: How the Buttercup Grew Yellow] Long, long ago it is told that the flowers were all white and that each received its color by some magic power. The little Daisy, with its yellow eye, received its golden center when the angry elves pelted the little Fairies with sunbeams. The Daisy grew to be very proud of her yellow eye and thought it showed off to perfection her pure white rim. One day she was looking about the field where she grew and saw the little White Cups growing all about her in abundance. "There is too much white in this field," she told the other Daisies. "Our beautiful white borders would show off much better if the White Cups were golden." "But perhaps the White Cups do not wish to become golden," said her sisters. "Oh, but we do, dear Daisies," said the White Cups all in chorus; "we have always wanted to be a beautiful yellow like your eyes, but we thought you would not like to have us that color, as we have to live in the same field." "Oh yes, we would," said the Daisy, "and I am sure the fields will look much more beautiful with you a golden color than white; besides that, we shall be seen to better advantage; so both of us will gain by the change." "But who will help us to change our color?" asked the White Cups. The daisy thought a long time, and at length she said: "You might get the Goblins to color you, but the thing is to get them to do it. They are such queer little fellows that if they thought they were bothering the Fairies they would do it quick enough; but if we ask them to make you yellow that we all may look more beautiful they would only laugh and run off." "Why can't we make them think they would make the Fairies angry if they made us golden?" asked the White Cups; "I am sure we can find a way." "That would be the very thing," said the Daisy, "but what do you propose to do?" "We will ask the Fairies when they come into the fields to-night for their frolic," said the White Cups. That night when the Fairies came flying over the field the White Cups called to them and told them what they wanted. "Oh, that will be beautiful," said the Fairy Queen, "and we can fool the Goblins easy enough, as you shall see." The Fairy Queen called her Fairies around her and whispered so low that the field flowers could not hear what she said, but they heard the Fairies laugh as they flew away, and each alighted on a little White Cup and began to sing.