wonder if that brown one has a good story to it."

"You might choose it and see," said the fairy. So Teddy chose that one,
and then the fairy began to count. "One, two, three, four, five," she
counted, and so on and on until she reached "FORTY-NINE!"

* * * * * * * *

"Why, how funny!" cried Teddy.

He was nowhere at all but on the back door-step, and he sat there just
as naturally as though he were not in a story at all. Then the back gate
opened, and in through it came a little withered old woman, wearing a
brown cloak, and a brown hood drawn over her head. "Why, Counterpane
Fairy!" cried Teddy, but when she raised her head and looked at him he
saw that it was not the Counterpane Fairy after all, but an old Italian
woman carrying a basket on her arm.

"You buy something, leetle boy?" she said.

"I can't," said Teddy. "I haven't any money except what's in my bank,
but I'll ask Hannah and maybe she will."

So saying he ran into the kitchen. The clock was ticking on the wall,
and the room smelled of fresh-baked bread, but it was empty. Opening the
door of the stairway, Teddy called, "Hannah! Hannah!" There was no
answer; it all seemed strangely still upstairs. "She must have gone
out," Teddy said to himself.

When he went back to the outside door the old Italian had put down her