The Counterpane Fairy made no answer. She was walking down the other
side of the bedquilt hill, and Teddy heard her voice, little and thin,
dying away in the distance: "Oh dear, dear, dear! What a hill to go
down! What a hill it is! Oh dear, dear, dear!"

Then the door opened and his mother came in. She was looking rested,
and she smiled at him lovingly, but the little brown Counterpane Fairy
was gone.



CHAPTER SECOND.

THE OWLS AND THE GAMBLESOME ELF.

THE next morning when Teddy awoke it was still very early; so early that
even Hannah was not yet stirring.

Outside everything was wrapped in a silvery mist, and now and then a
drop of moisture plumped down on the porch roof.

Teddy lay still for a while, growing wider and wider awake, and then he
began to stir restlessly and wish that his mother would come. After a
while he called her, but the house was so silent that he didn't like to
call very loudly, and there was no answer.

He thought he would call again, and then suddenly he remembered the
Counterpane Fairy, and wondered if she would like little boys who called
their mothers so early.