he said, "until I came to the sea. Then I turned around and came back
the same way. It was a beautiful trip and when I came to the center of
the great whispering forest there was a clearing at the side of the
tinkling, singing stream, and the lovely fish leaped from the crystal
waters and showed me their wonderful coloring, and the clearing was
filled with beautiful flowers and the music of birds. And it was so
beautiful I stopped and watched and listened.

"It seemed as if hundreds of children were playing around me, and
although I could not hear them yet it seemed to me that I felt they were
shouting and laughing at their play!"

"How wonderful it must have been!" said his wife.

"It was indeed very wonderful, mother. And when I returned I again
stopped at the same place and sat and listened to the singing of the
waters and the birds, and I saw the wild creatures come down into the
clearing and act as if they were being fed, and all the time I seemed
to feel the laughter and happy shouting of children at play. And a most
delightful feeling of contentment and happiness came over me as if I sat
within the borders of Fairyland!

"Then as I stooped to drink of the tinkling waters before I started on
my way home, I saw, tied to a flower growing in the water, the tiny
little bottle with the note inside which I had floated off a long time
ago, so I brought it home with me!"

And from his knapsack the man took the tiny bottle and placed it on the
table before his wife.