The next day the children went to the woods to see whether the fairies
had been there. Betty reached the spot first and cried out joyfully,
"They came! They came!" And sure enough, the leaf plates were empty.
Every strawberry, every crumb of cake, was gone.

"The fairies really came," said the other little girls as they stood
around the magic ring.

"Tweet-tweet-tweet," sang a bird in a tree top; "tweet-tweet-tweet."

He cocked his little head and looked very wise and knowing. But "Tweet--
tweet--tweet; tweet--tweet-tweet" was all he said.

One of the things Peggy and Betty and Dot liked best to do was to watch
Mrs. White skim the rich cream from the great pans of milk in the dairy.
The dairy was down by the brook and the pans of milk were on shelves
near the water, so that they were kept fresh and cool.

One very warm day Mary said, "Let's play dairy."

"All right," said Betty.

"All right," echoed Peggy and Dot. "You show us how."

So Mary brought two big pans and two pieces of soap from the kitchen.
She filled the pans with water and put a piece of soap in each pan. Then
she told the other children to watch the cream rise. She began to shake
the soap about in the water, and the suds rose higher and higher.