Mis’ Thomas, Ann McFinney’s downstairs to see you about that sewing you said she could do for you,” said Hannah, putting her head in at the door. Mamma was sitting close to the bed playing a game of Old Maid with Teddy.
“Very well, Hannah; tell her I’ll be there in a moment,” she said.
“Oh, please don’t go yet,” said Teddy. “It’s my draw. Match! You’re the old maid. Oh, Mamma! You’re an old maid!” And he pointed his finger at her and laughed.
“Why, so I am,” said mamma. “Now you can shuffle the cards, and when I come back we’ll have another game.”
“Don’t stay long,” begged Teddy.
“I’ll come back as soon as I can,” said mamma, and then she went out.
Teddy lay propped up on the pillow and shuffled and shuffled the cards, and wished his mother would hurry. He did not like Ann McFinney, for when she came she always cried, and wiped her eyes on the corner of her apron, and told how her husband was out of work, and the children needed shoes.
Now it was some time before mamma came back, and when she did she had her bonnet on. “Darling,” she said, “I have to go out for a while. Mrs. McFinney’s baby’s sick, and I’ve promised the poor thing to come over and see it. I won’t be gone long, and when I come back I’ll bring you a sheet of paper soldiers to cut out.”
“I’d rather have a paper circus,” said Teddy.
“Very well,” said mamma, “I’ll bring you a circus instead.” Then she gave him some picture-books to look at while she was out, and kissed him good-bye, telling him to be a good boy.
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.
It seemed to come from outside the crystal window, and looking through it Teddy saw that outside was the most beautiful garden he had ever seen. The grass of the garden was a silvery green; and the paths were white. The leaves of the tress were lined with silver, and the branches hung with shining fruit. There were lilies growing beside the paths, and in the centre of the garden a fountain leaped and fell back into a marble basin. The water sparkled as though it were made of diamonds, and as Teddy listened he knew that the music he heard was the voice of the fountain.
Presently it ceased and then the fairy turned to him and smiled.
“Oh, Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, “may I go out into that garden?”
“That I don’t know,” said the fairy, “but if you want to get there the best thing for you to do is find Starlein and Silverling, for they are the only ones who can show you the way into the garden.”
“Where are they?” asked Teddy.
“I can’t tell you that, either,” said the fairy, “but they’re somewhere in the halls.”
“I’ll go find them,” cried Teddy, and without waiting any longer he turned and ran down the hall as fast as he could, he was in such haste to find them and get them to show him the way into the garden.
On and on he ran, through one hall after another, through arched doorways, and along echoing corridors, until he felt all bewildered and out of breath. All the time he was running he seemed to hear the music of the singing fountain in his ears, but whenever he stopped to listen everything was still.
He was so out of breath that he had begun to walk, when turning another corner he suddenly saw before him a little girl who he somehow felt sure was Starlein.
Her hair was of a silvery yellow and was like a mist about her head; she was very beautiful and was dressed from head to foot in silver that shone and sparkled as she moved. Around her was flying a flock of white doves, and she was playing with them and talking.
As soon as she saw Teddy she cried out, “Oh, it’s a little child!” and running down the hall to him, with her doves flying about her, she put her little hands on his cheeks and kissed him. Then she stood back and looked at him with her hands clasped. “You dear little boy!” she said. “Where did you come from?”
“I came through the white square,” said Teddy.
“I don’t know the white square,” said the little girl, “but I’m glad you came. I haven’t anyone to play with since Silverling went away.”
“Where has Silverling gone?” asked Teddy. “I must find him.”
The little girl shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said. “We quarrelled once and he went away. He must be in some of the halls, but I’ve been hunting and hunting ever since and I can’t find him.”
Then Teddy told her how the Counterpane Fairy had said that he must find Silverling and Starlein and that then perhaps he could get into the garden where the singing fountain was.
The little girl shook her head again. “I am Starlein,” she said, “but I can’t take you into the garden, because I have never found the gate into it since Silverling went away,” and she went over and sat down on a marble bench beside the wall, and all the doves settled about her on her knees and shoulders.
“Never mind,” cried Teddy, bravely, “you wait here and I’ll go and find him. I found you and I’ll find him too.”
Turning he ran down the hall and through an arched way into another hall, and there, far, far down at the other end, he saw a little boy dressed in silver, who was tossing a silver ball up into the air and catching it again.
When he saw Teddy he slipped the ball into his pocket and ran to meet him, leaping with delight and clapping his hands. “Oh, little boy! little boy!” he cried, “will you come and play with me?”
“Are you Silverling?” cried Teddy, breathlessly.
“Yes,” said the little boy.
“Then come! come quick!” cried Teddy. “Starlein is just around the corner, and she is waiting for you to come and show us the way into the garden where the singing fountain is.”
He caught Silverling by the hand and without another word they ran as fast as they could up the hall and around the corner, through the silvery archway, and into the other hall. There Teddy stopped short, looking blankly about him. Starlein was gone.
Silverling shook his head sadly. “I know how it would be,” he said. “I’ve been hunting for her ever since we quarrelled, but I can’t find her, and I can’t find the way into the garden of the singing fountain either.”
“What did you quarrel about?” asked Teddy.
“We quarrelled about this,” said the little boy, touching a slender golden chain that hung around his neck. “We found it in the garden and we quarrelled about who should wear it, but I’d be so glad to give it to Starlein now if she would only come back again.”
“Well, wait!” said Teddy. “She can’t be far away and I’ll go and find her.”
“No, no!” cried Silverling. “You can’t find her, and I’ll lose you too. Stay here awhile, little boy, and play with me, for I’m very lonely. Look! Let’s play with my silver ball,” and taking it from his pocket he tossed it to Teddy. Teddy caught it and threw it back to him, and so they played together in the marble hall, tossing the silver ball and shouting with laughter.
At last Silverling missed the ball, and as it rolled on down the hall he ran after it, stooping and trying to catch it, but always just missing. Teddy shouted and clapped his hands, jumping up and down with his bare feet, and then he stood still watching Silverling as he ran far, far down the hall.
As he stood thus, suddenly he heard from just around the corner the cooing of Starlein’s doves.
He did not stop a moment, but turning ran around into the next hall, and there sure enough was Starlein with her doves about her.
“Oh, little boy!” she cried, “I was afraid I had lost you.”
But Teddy caught her by the hand. “Come quick!” he cried, “I have found Silverling.”
They ran together into the hall where a moment ago Silverling had been playing with the silver ball, but it was vacant now; Silverling was gone.
“Well, I never!” said Teddy. Then he turned to Starlein. “Starlein, you shouldn’t have gone away when I told you not to.”
“I didn’t,” said Starlein. “I stayed right there.”
Teddy thought awhile. “Then it must have been the wrong hall,” he said. “But never mind! I’ll find him again, and this time I’ll surely bring him to you; only wait here no matter how long it is.”
“Stop! oh, stop!” cried Starlein. She caught one of her doves in her hands and held it out to Teddy. “Here, little boy,” she said; “take this with you, and if you can’t find me again, give it to Silverling and tell him he is to keep it for his very own.”
“Yes, I will,” said Teddy, and he took the dove and put it in the bosom of his tunic, and it nestled there all warm and soft and still.
Then he turned and walked quietly down the hall and into another. He went on and on, but he did not run and jump now, for he was thinking. After a while, when he turned into another hall he once more saw Silverling at play with his silver ball.
“Did you find her?” cried Silverling, eagerly.
“Yes,” said Teddy, “I found her, and she sent you a dove for your very own; but, Silverling, I think this. I think the only way for us ever to find her together is for us to set the dove free, and to follow it when it flies back to her.”
“But we couldn’t follow it,” said Silverling. “It would fly so fast that it would be out of sight in a minute.”
“I know,” said Teddy, “but we could tie something to it.”
“What could we fasten to it?” asked Silverling.
The two little boys stood looking about them and wondering what they could use. Suddenly Teddy clapped his hands so the dove in his tunic started. “We’ll fasten the end of your golden chain to it,” he cried.
No sooner said than done. In a moment Silverling had taken the chain from his neck and unfastened the ends. It was so long that it had been twisted several times around his neck. Very gently they took the dove and fastened the chain to its leg, and then they let it go.
It fluttered up over their heads and circled about them once or twice, and then it flew on down the hall with the little boys following it.
They turned many a corner and went through many a door, and at last they came into a hall and there —there was Starlein waiting for them with her doves about her.
“Oh, Starlein!” cried Silverling.
“Oh, Silverling!” cried Starlein.
They ran to each other and threw their arms about each other’s necks and kissed, while the white doves flew circling about them. Then they told each other how sorry they were that they had quarrelled, and that they would never do it any more, and then they kissed again.
“And you may have the golden chain, Starlein,” said Silverling.
“No, no! you must keep it,” said Starlein.
“Oh, I know what we’ll do!” cried Silverling; “we’ll give it to this little boy, because if it hadn’t been for him we wouldn’t have found each other.”
“Oh, yes!” said Starlein.
But Teddy held up his hand— “Hush!” he whispered; “don’t you hear it?”
Then they all listened, and sweeter and clearer than ever before they heard the voice of the singing fountain in the beautiful garden.
“It is the fountain!” cried Starlein and Silverling, half fearfully.
They each caught Teddy by the hand, and all ran down the hall together, and the very first corner that they turned they found themselves at the door of the garden.
The wind was blowing the lilies, the fruit on the wonderful trees shone and glistened in the sunlight, and the fountain —ah! the fountain was no longer singing, for the music-box in the nursery had run down.
Teddy looked about him. Instead of the garden there was the flowery India-room. The clock ticked, the fire crackled; —he was back in bed once more, and he heard mamma speaking to Hannah in the hall outside, so he knew she was home again.
“And that is the end of that story,” said the Fairy of the Counterpane.
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