them like two stars.

"Forgive our impertinence," answered the little Lady Seseley,
trying to appear dignified and unmoved; "but you must acknowledge
that you came among us uninvited, and--and you are certainly rather
odd in appearance."

Again the silvery laughter rang through the glade.

"Uninvited!" echoed the creature, clapping her hands together
delightedly; "uninvited to my own forest home! Why, my dear girls,
you are the uninvited ones--indeed you are--to thus come romping into
our fairy bower."

The children did not open their eyes any wider on hearing this speech,
for they could not; but their faces expressed their amazement fully,
while Helda gasped the words:

"A fairy bower! We are in a fairy bower!"

"Most certainly," was the reply. "And as for being odd in appearance,
let me ask how you could reasonably expect a fairy to appear as mortal
maidens do?"

"A fairy!" exclaimed Seseley. "Are you, then, a real fairy?"

"I regret to say I am," returned the other, more soberly, as she
patted a moss-bank with a silver-tipped wand.

Then for a moment there was silence, while the three girls sat very