"Yes, I shall to," spoke Uncle Wiggily. "Begging your pardon, of course, Alvinah." You see, Mamma Littletail's first name was Alvinah. So Uncle Wiggily danced a jig, and did it fairly well, considering everything.

That afternoon Susie Littletail went for a walk in the woods. She was all alone, for Sammie had gone over to play with Bully, the frog, and Billie and Johnnie Bushytail, his squirrel chums. Susie walked along, and she was rather hoping she might meet the fairy prince, who was changed from a mud turtle into a nice boy, and came to Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble's party. But Susie didn't meet him, and, when it began to get dark, she started for home.

"Oh!" she exclaimed aloud, as she came to a little spot where the gra.s.s grew nice and green, and where the trees were all set in a circle, just as if they were playing, Ring Around the Rosy, Sweet Tobacco Posey. "Oh, dear, I wish I would meet with a fairy, as Uncle Wiggily did! But I don't s'pose I ever will. I never have any good luck! Only last week I lost my ring with the blue stone in it."

And just then--oh, in fact, right after Susie finished speaking, what should she hear but a voice singing. Yes, a voice singing; a sweet, silvery voice, and this is what it sang. Of course, I can't sing this in a sweet, silvery voice, but I'll do the best I can. Now this is the song:

"If any one is seeking A fairy for to see, If they will kindly glance up Into this chestnut tree They'll see what they are seeking, I'm truly telling you, For I'm a little fairy All dressed in baby-blue."

Then, you may believe me or not, if Susie didn't look up into the tree, and there, in a hole where the Owl school teacher once lived, was a really and truly-ruly fairy. Honest. Susie knew at once it was a fairy that she saw because the little creature was colored baby blue, you know, the shade they put on babies, and she had gauzy wings, with stars on them, and carried a magic wand which also had a star on it, did the little blue creature. Still, the little rabbit girl wanted to make sure, so she asked: "Are you a fairy?"

"I am," replied the little creature in blue. "Can you kindly tell me how much two and two are?"

"Four," answered Susie.

"Is it really?"

"Of course. You ought to know that," spoke Susie proudly, for she was at the head of her arithmetic cla.s.s.

"Ought I?" asked the fairy with a sigh. "Well, I suppose I had, but I haven't been to school in ever so long--not since I was a wee bit of a child, and that's ever and ever so many years ago, when I was no bigger than that," and she pointed to something in the air.

"Bigger than what?" asked Susie, who didn't see anything.

"Than that speck of star dust," went on the blue fairy. "It's so small you can't see it. But no matter. Because you were so kind as to tell me how much two and two are, I will give you three wishes."

"Will you, really?" cried Susie in delight.

"Yes, three wishes, for I am a regular fairy, and that is the regular number of wishes you may have. Some fairies only give two wishes, and some only one. But I always give three. Go ahead now, and wish."

"Let me see," thought Susie, and her nose twinkled like three stars, she was so excited. "First I wish for a golden coach drawn by four horses."

"Oh!" cried the fairy, "I'm so sorry, for wishes like that, though they come true, never last. Still, you may have it," and she waved her magic wand, and if the golden coach and four horses didn't appear right there in the woods--honest! "Wish again, my dear," went on the fairy, and this time Susie was more careful.

"I wish for ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots," she said, and once more the fairy said she was sorry, for that wish wouldn't last. Still, it came true, and down from the tree where the blue fairy sat, came tumbling the ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots, each one wrapped up in lace paper. Susie put them in the golden coach, and was ready for her next wish. She thought a good long while over this one. Then she said:

"I wish I could find my ring with the blue stone!"

At that the fairy clapped her tiny hands. "That is a fine wish!" she cried. "It will come true, and stay so. But the others----" and she shook her head sorrowfully. Then she waved her magic wand three times in the air, and suddenly, in less than two jumps, if the ring with the blue stone, that Susie had lost, didn't appear right on the end of the wand. And it flew off and landed right on Susie's paw. Oh, wasn't she glad! And the fairy said: "The ring will last, because that is blue, and I am blue, too. Now, good bye, Susie." And with that she disappeared, changing into a b.u.t.terfly with golden wings. Then Susie started to get in the golden coach and ride home, but, would you believe me, if those horses didn't run away, upsetting the coach and breaking it, and scattering all the ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots all over. Oh, how badly Susie felt, but it was just what the fairy said would happen.

The first two wishes didn't last. Anyhow, Susie had the ring, and she hurried home to tell her story. Now, if it doesn't rain to-morrow, the story to-morrow night will be about Sammie and the green fairy.

XXVII

SAMMIE AND THE GREEN FAIRY

When Susie told her brother Sammie about what happened to her in the woods, when she saw the blue fairy, the little rabbit boy remarked:

"Aw, I guess you fell asleep and dreamed that, Susie." for that's the way with brothers sometimes. I once had a brother, and he--but there, I'll tell you about him some other time.

"No," answered Susie, "I didn't dream it. Why, here's my ring to prove it," and she held out the one with the blue stone in it.

"I guess you found that in the woods, where you lost it," went on Sammie. "I don't believe in fairies at all."

"But didn't one cure Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism?"

"Aw, well, I guess that would have gotten better anyhow."

"It wouldn't, so there!" exclaimed Susie. "I just hope you see a fairy some day, and I hope they don't treat you as kind as the one treated me, even if the horses did run away and disappear." But of course Susie didn't really want anything bad to happen to her brother. But you just wait and see what did happen. Oh, it was something very, very strange, yes, indeed, and I'm not fooling a bit; no, indeed. I wouldn't make it out anything different than what it really was, not for a penny and a half.

Well, it happened about a week later. Sammie was coming home from a ball game, which he had played with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail (of whom I will tell you later), and some others of his chums, and he was in a deep, dark part of the wood, when suddenly he heard a crashing in the bushes.

"Pooh!" exclaimed Sammie. "I s'pose that's one of them fairies. I'm not going to notice her," and with that he tossed his baseball up in the air, careless like, to show that he didn't mind. But he was a bit nervous, all the same, and his hand slipped and his best ball went right down in a deep, dark, muddy puddle of water. Then Sammie felt pretty bad, I tell you, and he was going to get a stick to fish the ball out, when he heard the crashing in the bushes again, and what should appear but--no, not a fairy, but bad, ugly fox.

"Ah!" exclaimed the fox, looking at Sammie, and smacking his lips, "I've been waiting for you for some time."

"Yes?" asked the little boy rabbit, and he tried to see a way to run past that fox, only there wasn't any.

"Yes, really," went on the fox. "Have you had your supper?"

"No," replied Sammie, "I haven't."

"Neither have I," continued the fox, "but I'm going to have it pretty soon, in fact, almost immediately," which you children know means right away. "I'm going to eat directly," went on that bad fox, and he smacked his lips again and looked at Sammie, as if he was going to eat him up, for that's really what he meant when he said he was going to have supper. Oh, how frightened Sammie was. He began to tremble, and he wished he'd started for home earlier. Then the fox crouched down and was just going to jump on that little boy rabbit, when something happened.

Right up from that puddle of water, where Sammie had lost his ball, sprang a little man in green. He was green all over, like Bully, the frog, but the funny part of it was that he wasn't wet a bit, even though he came up out of the water.

"Ha! What have we here?" he cried out, just like that.

"If--if you please, sir," began Sammie.

"It's my supper time!" cried the fox, interrupting, which was not very polite on his part. "It's my supper time, and I'm hungry."

"I don't see anything to eat," spoke the little green man. "Nothing at all," and he looked all around.

"If--if you please, kind sir," went on Sammie, "I think he intends to eat me."

"What! What!" cried the little green man. "The very idea! The very idonical idea! We'll see about that! Oh, my, yes, and a bushel of apple turnovers besides! Aha! Ahem!"

Then he looked most severely at that fox, most severely, I do a.s.sure you, and he asked: "Were you going to eat up my friend Sammie Littletail?"

"I was, but I didn't know he was a friend of yours," replied the fox, beginning to tremble. Oh, you could see right away that he was afraid of that little green man.

"Oh, you bad fox, you!" cried the little green man. "Oh, you bad fox!

Just for that I'm going to turn you into a little country village!

Presto, chango! Smacko, Mackeo! Bur-r-r-r!" and he waved his hands at the fox, who immediately disappeared. And he was changed into a little country village, with a church, a school and thirty-one houses, and it's called Foxtown to this very day. I ought to know, for I used to live there.