"Very well," said the Counterpane Fairy. "Look straight at it and don't
turn your eyes away until I count seven times seven and then you shall
see the story of it."

Teddy fixed his eyes on the square and the fairy began to count.
"One--two--three--four," she counted; Teddy heard her voice, thin and
clear as the hissing of the logs on the hearth. "Don't look away from
the square," she cried. "Five--six--seven"--it seemed to Teddy that the
yellow silk square was turning to a mist before his eyes and wrapping
everything about him in a golden glow. "Thirteen--fourteen"--the fairy
counted on and on. "Forty-six--forty-seven--forty-eight--FORTY-NINE!"

At the words forty-nine, the Counterpane Fairy clapped her hands and
Teddy looked about him. He was no longer in a golden mist. He was
standing in a wonderful enchanted garden. The sky was like the golden
sky at sunset, and the grass was so thickly set with tiny yellow flowers
that it looked like a golden carpet. From this garden stretched a long
flight of glass steps. They reached up and up and up to a great golden
castle with shining domes and turrets.

"Listen!" said the Counterpane Fairy. "In that golden castle there lies
an enchanted princess. For more than a hundred years she has been lying
there waiting for the hero who is to come and rescue her, and you are
the hero who can do it if you will."

With that the fairy led him to a little pool close by, and bade him look
in the water. When Teddy looked, he saw himself standing there in the
golden garden, and he did not appear as he ever had before. He was tall
and strong and beautiful, like a hero.