A month passed peacefully away in the depths of the forest, Subha
Datta waiting on the fairies and becoming every day more selfish
and bent on enjoying himself. Then he had another dream, in which he
saw his wife and children in the old home with plenty of food, and
evidently so happy without him that he felt quite determined to go and
show them he was still alive. When he woke he said to the fairies,
"I will not stop with you any longer. I have had a good time here,
but I am tired of this life away from my own people."

The fairies saw he was really in earnest this time, so they consented
to let him go; but they were kind-hearted people and felt they ought
to pay him in some way for all he had done for them. They consulted
together, and then one of them told him they wished to make him a
present before he went away, and they would give him whatever he
asked for.

15. What do you think it was that made Subha Datta determine to go
home when he found his wife and children could do without him?

16. What would you have chosen if the fairies had told you you could
have anything you liked?


CHAPTER IX


Directly the woodcutter heard he could have anything he asked for,
he cried, "I will have the magic pitcher."