ing the day; to hope in a whisper
that he felt better, and went about the pretty cottage on tip-toe--all
their merriment gone. You would hardly believe they were the same
children that yesterday had kept half the people in the steamboat
laughing; so changed and still were they become, through their love
for their sick brother.

The little mother sent for the doctor. He belonged to the army, and,
of course dressed like the officers in military uniform.

When he entered, the children gazed with wonder and delight upon his
bright buttons, each of which had an astonishing spread-eagle
engraved upon it, and thought they could never admire enough the
beautiful gold lace upon his coat-sleeves. Really, he was quite a
shining doctor.

He became interested with Charley at once: the sweet, patient smile of
the suffering boy won his heart.

"My dear madam," said he to the little mother, "this is nothing but
temporary exhaustion; with some strengthening medicine which I shall
leave, and a good night's rest, our dear little friend will be as well
as he was before he came up; and I am in great hopes that this bracing
mountain air will soon make him much better than he was before he
came."

The children now approached the door and begged leave to enter, for
they wanted to hear about Charley, and have a "_good look_" at the
"soldier doctor."

"Well, my little friends," said he, in a hearty, cheery voice, "so
you've come up, I suppose, to help the fairies amuse Charley this
summer."

"FAIRIES!" exclaimed the children; "DELIGHTFUL! Are there _fairies_
here?"

"Lots of them," answered the doctor, laughing--"_that is_, if I may
believe my man, Patrick O'Neal. He declares he has seen the fairy
rings in the beautiful hollow at the foot of Crow Nest mountain many
and many a time."

"Oh dear! how perfect!" cried the children; "only fancy the dear
little fairies dancing on the parade-ground in the moonlight."

"Not exactly," said the doctor, laughing again; "fairies don't come so
near the haunts of mortals; besides, the cadets want the parade-ground
for their own dances and rings--not fairy rings--for those are made
with sparkling dew-drops, while the cadets have to content themselves
with tallow candles stuck into scooped-out turnips and placed in a
circle, and the lights throwing the shadows up, make the long legs of
the cadets look like ever so many great goblin black spiders, hopping
harem-scarem over each other; but the cadet