er she
would always be after she had got back to her once more; and then she
fell asleep, and slept so soundly that she did not wake till the sun was
up, and it was time to water the flower.

At first she was terribly frightened; but when she remembered what the
fairy told her, she began to feel comfortable, and, lest something might
happen, she took a little sea-shell that lay there, and running down to
the water, dipped it up full, and was on her way back, thinking how
happy her poor dear mamma would feel if she could only know _what_ it
was and _who_ it was that made her so much better, when she heard the
strangest and sweetest noises all about her in the air, as if the whole
sky was full of the happiest and merriest creatures! and when she looked
up, lo! there was a broad glitter to be seen, as if the whole population
of Fairy-land were passing right over her head, making a sort of path
like that you see at sunrise along the blue deep, when the waters are
motionless and smooth and clear.

"Well," said she, looking up, "I _do_ wonder where they are going so
fast,"--and then she stopped,--"and I do think they might he civil
enough just to let a body know; I dare say 'tis the coronation, or the
butterfly-hunt, or the tournament, or the-- O, how I should like to be
there!"

No sooner was the wish uttered, than she found herself seated in a high
gallery, as delicately carved as the ivory fans of the east; with
diamonds and ostrich-feathers all about and below her, and a prodigious
crowd assembled in the open air,--with the lists open,--a trumpet
sounding,--and scores of knights armed cap-a-pie, and mounted on
dragon-flies, waiting for the charge. All eyes were upon her, and
everybody about was whispering her name, and she never felt half so
happy in her life; and she was just beginning to compare the delicate
embroidery of her wings with that of her next neighbor, a sweet little
fairy who sat looking through her fingers at a youthful champion below,
and pouting and pouting as if she wanted everybody to know that he had
jilted her, when she happened to see a little forget-me-not embroidered
on his beaver; and she instantly recollected her promise, and cried out,
"O mamma! mamma!" and wished herself back again, where she might sit by
the flower and watch over it, and never leave it, never! till her three
days of trial were ended.

In a moment, before she could speak a word, or even make a bow to the
nice little boy-fa