Finally Bizzybuzz pointed ahead to where a little clearing was shining in a soft, sunset light. In it was a small, pretty cottage, from the chimney of which a thin trail of blue smoke floated up into the sky. In front of it was a gay little garden, and when Humpty Dumpty saw it, he almost wept. “At last!” said Bizzybuzz, smiling. [Illustration] XVII _Mother Goose Once More_ [Illustration] [Illustration] CHAPTER XVII _Mother Goose Once More_ And so Bab, Meg, and Dick came back to Mother Goose’s cottage at last, and brought with them Prince Humpty Dumpty and the Princess Star. It seemed to our three children, when they saw the cottage, that a very, very long time had passed since they left it to start upon their various adventures. It all seemed very natural and homelike, somehow, coming back to the quaint little house, with its bright garden, and its latticed windows, and the door with its funny string-latch. In spite of their excitement, and all their narrow escapes, and everything that they all had been through, a feeling of peace came over them, and they felt happy enough to cry when the cottage door opened, and Mother Goose herself smiled at them from the threshold. Of course there was the greatest sort of rejoicing when she and Humpty Dumpty met after all the centuries of their separation, and after they had kissed and hugged and cried over each other, she welcomed the Princess, and kissed her too very kindly. And finally she turned, with her very sweetest, gentlest look, to the three children who were standing together, silently looking on. “Thank you, dear children,” she said. “You have served me very well, very bravely and very truly, and I am grateful.” “Oh, Mother Goose,” broke out Bab, conscientiously, “I’m afraid if you knew—” “I _do_ know,” said Mother Goose. “At this moment I am reading your eyes, and I can see every single thing that has happened to you all while you have been away,—not only what you have done, but what you have thought.” She looked keenly at them and smiled. And they all hung their heads and blushed a little, for they were remembering the many times that they had been weak or forgetful or cowardly. “But,” she went on, “knowing everything, dears, I still thank you, and praise you, for you have done very well,—much, much better than you know. And that,” she added, “is something for you to remember; we are always a little bit better than we think, and so when we are naughty, the best thing for us to do is to say to ourselves, ‘Dear me, I am not giving myself a chance! I am really good; why am I trying so hard to be bad?’” And the children never forgot what she said. You will do well to remember it too. “And now,” went on Mother Goose, with a delightfully mysterious smile, “I have planned a little surprise for you.” “A surprise!” they all three repeated, wondering.