“Well, we can’t have this, you know,” said his father. “I shall have to lock your door every night. But we will have that old well screwed up hereafter. Perhaps that will satisfy Katie, though I think she will not be troubled with any more noises in the wall. She says that there was a big, big rat dead in the trap this morning.” And indeed, nobody ever heard any more noises in the cellar after Rob helped the Indian Fairy to escape. That very morning, right after breakfast,--for it was a Saturday and there was no school,--he dug up the ferns which he had planted in his flower-pot, and put them in a little basket with the earth around their roots. Then he started to take the electric car which would carry him out of town to the woods. “Where are you going, Rob?” asked his Mamma, seeing him with cap in hand. “I am going to take my ferns back to the woods,” Rob answered. “I think it is cruel to keep things that love the sunshine and the fresh air shut up in a house. I am sure that the ferns would much rather be back in the woods, don’t you think so, Mamma?” “Well, I am sure I never thought of that!” said his Mamma. “But you may go if you will be back in time for dinner.” [Illustration: ROB AND THE INDIAN FAIRY] So Rob took the ferns to the woods and set them back in their first home under a big gray rock, the prettiest little spot in the world for a Fairy to dwell! But he saw nothing more of the Indian Fairy, though he looked and looked; and after he had started for home, went back there again three separate times to look, because he hated to part from his little new friend. But the last time he heard, or thought he heard, a very tiny, far-off, trickly voice say,-- “Farewell, my friend! Farewell! I am free, free, free! And you shall always be happy when you come to the woods, even if you never see me. For I will make this charm about you, because you were kind. Farewell, farewell!” And this was the last that Rob ever heard of the Indian Fairy, though he went often and often to that same place in the woods; but the Fairy charm did indeed prove true, and Rob was always very, very happy as soon as he came into the woods, happier than he was anywhere else. FAIRIES If I should see a Fairy, I should not be afraid, I know so much about them, From all that I have read. I’ve planned how I would greet them, And what I ought to say; I’d have my Wish all ready, To save the least delay. I sometimes feel them near me, But still I cannot see. I wonder, oh! I wonder, Are they afraid of me? The Riverside Press _Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ THE FLOWER PRINCESS By ABBIE FARWELL BROWN