uick cheerful little bark, wagging his
tail with the greatest energy the while, and with still another
'bow-wow,' turned round and ran in quietly. It was the plainest 'thank
you ma'am for being so kind,' that ever was spoken in dog or any
language. Now _don't_ you call that behaving like a gentleman?"

"Yes indeed," said the children heartily, and Archie, whose trayful was
ready for some other process by this time, turned to Sybil with
deference.

"Please, Sybil, will you kindly open the door?"

She did so, and he disappeared, but in a moment his voice was again
heard begging for re-admittance.

"I beg your pardon," he said, "I have come back again to say 'thank
you.' If I _had_ a tail to wag I could do so."

But though they got some fun out of it, I don't think Auntie's anecdote
did Master Archie any harm.

[Illustration]

THE BAD FAIRY.

[Illustration]

"There _is_ a bad fairy in this house. I don't care what you say. There
_must_ be. Here have I been hours hunting everywhere for my silver
whistle. I _know_ I had it yesterday evening, and I haven't been out
since, and we can't play at our hunt in the wood without it. And they're
all waiting for us. It's too bad--it _is_," and Leonard stamped about
the room, flinging everything topsy-turvy in his vain search.

"And my umbrella, and my sleeve stud," said David, his two years older
brother. "They have _completely_ disappeared. Upon my word, Leonard, I
think you're right, this house is bewitched."

"Master Leonard, please, here's your whistle. Cook found it just now
lying beside the pump in the garden."

"There now--didn't I say so? It _must_ be a bad fairy. Was I near the
pump in the garden last night? How did the whistle get there, if it
wasn't bewitched?" said Leonard, as he and David hurried off.

It was true he had not been near the pump, but he had left the whistle
among some flowers on the nursery table, and "baby," as his six-years
old sister was called, had thrown it into the basket with the remains of
her nosegays. What more easy than for the heavy whistle to drop out of
the lightly made open wicker work, as the nursemaid was carrying the
withered flowers and leaves to throw away? David's umbrella, had he
known it, was at that moment reposing in the pew-opener's care among
various "lost and strayed" articles at church; and the sleeve stud was
safely ensconced in a mouse-hole behind the chest of drawers on which it
had been carelessly lai