She went out through the next room, and he heard her pause to wind the music-box and set it playing. “There,” she called back to him, “you’ll have the music to keep you company,” and then she went on down-stairs. After she had gone Teddy lay fingering the books and not caring to open them, he knew them so well. “Oh dear!” he sighed, “I wish the Counterpane Fairy was here!” “Oh dear, dear, dear! How steep this hill is!” said a little voice just back of his knees. “Don’t break, me little staff, or down I’ll go, head over heels to the bottom.” Teddy knew the voice well, and his heart gave a leap of pleasure. There was the pointed cap and the withered face of the Counterpane Fairy just appearing above the counterpane hill. “Oh, Mrs. Fairy, I’m so glad you came, and I have the loveliest square picked out!” cried Teddy. “I hadn’t seen it before, because it was the other side of my knees. It’s that white one with the silver leaves on it, and my mamma says it was a scrap left from her wedding dress.” “Wait, wait,” said the fairy, “till a body gets her breath. Now which one is it?” “It’s that one,” said Teddy. “Will you tell me about it?” “Why, yes,” said the fairy, “if that’s the one you want. Now fix your eyes on it while I count.” Then the Counterpane Fairy began to count. He heard her voice going on and on and on. “FORTY-NINE!” she cried. When Teddy looked about him he saw that he was standing in a long hall of white marble veined with silver. There were arches and pillars of silver and all the walls were carved with lilies. Teddy walked slowly down this hall, and as he walked a rosy glow seemed to move with him. He looked down to see what made it, and found that he was dressed in a tunic of rose-colored silk, such as he had never seen before, and it was fastened about the waist with a golden girdle. His feet were bare, but the air was so mildly warm that the marble did not chill him. After a while, as he walked slowly and wonderingly down the hall, he turned a corner and found himself in another hall just like the first, only at one side there was a great crystal window, and sitting on a marble seat before it was the Counterpane Fairy herself. She sat quite still as though she were listening, and she paid no attention to Teddy. He was sure it must be the Counterpane Fairy, for it looked like her, though she was quite large now; she looked as large as a real woman. Teddy stood looking at her for a while, and waiting for her to see him, but she paid no attention, and so at last he whispered, “Counterpane Fairy!” “Hush!” said she. “I’m listening.” Then Teddy listened too, and as soon as he did he heard a sound of music like that of the music-box in the nursery at home, only it was very much clearer, and sweeter, and fainter.