, and then, quick as a wink, a
tiny fairy jumped out from behind a bush.

"Don't frighten my pony," said Mary Louise, as Dapple Gray stood up
straight on his hind legs, "he isn't used to fairies."

"No, indeed," whinnied the pony, for that is the way a horse talks, you
know. "I've met lots of people in dear Old Mother Goose Land, but
never a fairy."

"If you come into this forest you will meet many little people like
me," answered the fairy.

"Will they object if I travel through it?" asked little Mary Louise
anxiously. "You see, I'm on my way home."

"You have my permission," answered the fairy. "I'm queen of the Forest
Fays. But I thought you were looking for the Wishing Stone?"

"Maybe I was," answered Mary Louise. "You see, I thought if I could
find it, I'd wish I was home with my dear mother."

"It is not very far from here," said the little fairy. "Follow this
path through the trees and by and by you'll come to it. But let me
give you some advice. Be sure before you make your wish to say,

"Rose red, rose white,
I will try to do what's right."

"Thank you, I'll remember," answered little Mary Louise, and she turned
Dapple Gray down the path to the woody glen.

Well, by and by, after a while, she saw a big white stone. It looked
very like a rude stone chair, only of course, it didn't have any nice
soft cushion in it like the one my grandmother used.

With a cry of joy little Mary Louise jumped from the saddle. "Now I'll
make my wish!" And she sat down in the big stone chair and closed her
eyes.

But, oh dear me. She had been in such a hurry that she forgot to say
the little fairy verse and when she opened her eyes, there she was in
the very same spot.

And, oh, dear me! again. Instead of the Dapple Gray, a little gray
squirrel stood in the very spot where the little pony had been.

"If you would have what you would wish
You must obey each rule,
No matter whether in your home
Or in your Grammar School,"

sang a little yellow bird, as Mary Louise stared in amazement at the
little gray squirrel.

"Oh, dear me," she sighed, "where is Dapple Gray?"

"I was your little pony,
And my name was Dapple Gray.
But now I am a squirrel
Because you did not say;
'Rose red, rose white,
I will try to do what's right,'"

answered the little squirrel.

And then Mary Louise remembered what the little fairy had told her to
say when she made the wish. Oh, dear me. Ho