e of everything. What do you
suppose I began life as?"

"A railroad track," said Tom, bound to have a guess at the right answer,
though he really hadn't the slightest notion that he was correct.

[Illustration: "A POKER WHO COULD ONLY POKE."]

"You came pretty near it," said the Poker, with a smile. "I began life as
a boy."

"I don't see how a boy is pretty near a railroad track," said Tom.

"The boy I began life as lived right next door to a railroad," explained
the Poker. "See now?"

"Yes," said Tom. "But why didn't you stay a boy?"

"Because I wasn't contented," said the Poker, with a sigh. "I ought to
have been, though. I had everything in the world that a boy could want. My
parents were as good to me as they could possibly be. I had all the toys I
wanted. All I could eat--plenty of pudding and other good things as often
as they were to be had. I had two little sisters, who used to do
everything in the world for me. Plenty of boy friends to play with, and,
as I said before, a railroad right next door--and oh, the trains, and
trains, and trains I used to see! It was great fun. I can see, now that I
look back on it, and yet I never was satisfied. I used to cry my eyes out
sometimes because I hadn't wings like a bird, so that I could fly. At
other times I'd get discontented that I couldn't run as fast as a dog--I
never went to bed without feeling envious of somebody or something.

"Finally one night I'd gone to bed feeling particularly unhappy because a
big eagle I had seen flying about in the sky could do things I couldn't.
My nurse, thinking I had fallen asleep, went out of the night nursery and
left me alone. Just as she went out of one door the other door opened and
a very beautiful lady came in.

"'Is that you, mama?' I asked.

"'No,' said she. 'I am not your mother. I am a Fairy.'

"I had been crying pretty hard, I can tell you," said the Poker, with a
shake of his head, "but as soon as I heard the lady say she was a Fairy my
tears dried up as quick as lightning.

[Illustration: "I am not your mother; I am a fairy."]

"'I am a Fairy,' she repeated, coming to the side of my little bed and
stroking my forehead kindly. 'My duty is to seek out one discontented
person each year and see if I can't do something to help him. I have come
to help you if I can. Don't you like being a boy?'

"'Not very much,' said I. 'It's awfully hard work. I have to go to school
every day and learn lots of things I don't ca