seemed lazy about being lit. It acted as if the match were waking it
up.

But all of a sudden it would burst into flame, and the dark blue of
the bowl would turn into light blue--oh, such a pretty color, not like
the bluing Hannah put in the water to make the clothes white, nor
would it match Sophy Soapstone's electric blue dress. It was more like
a blue mist, just such a shade as the fairies would wear.

Marmaduke watched it a long time. Sometimes the little flame
sputtered, sometimes it waved in the air, or dipped and bowed in his
direction, and once it _actually_ winked at him.

From where he lay he could see a bright star shining through the
window. He tried to look with one eye at the light and with the other
eye at the star, both at the same time. The star seemed sort of blue,
too.

"I wonder if the little light is the baby of the star," he said to
himself.

And when he looked at the star again, he saw a ray travel down from it
into the window, right towards his eyes.

He blinked, and the light grew brighter. It made a pathway reaching
from the sky to his bed. Something seemed to be traveling down the
bright pathway, singing a song as it came.

First he thought it must be an angel, then a fairy with wings like a
moth.