ir peace, for fear of being laughed at;
and quite right they are.
So all that good little Ellie could say was, that it was worth all the
rest of the world put together. And of course that only made Tom the
more anxious to go likewise.
"Miss Ellie," he said at last, "I will know why I cannot go with you
when you go home on Sundays, or I shall have no peace, and give you none
either."
"You must ask the fairies that."
So when the fairy, Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid, came next, Tom asked her.
"Little boys who are only fit to play with sea-beasts cannot go there,"
she said. "Those who go there must go first where they do not like, and
do what they do not like, and help somebody they do not like."
"Why, did Ellie do that?"
"Ask her."
And Ellie blushed, and said, "Yes, Tom; I did not like coming here at
first; I was so much happier at home, where it is always Sunday. And I
was afraid of you, Tom, at first,--because--because----"
"Because I was all over prickles? But I am not prickly now, am I, Miss
Ellie?"
"No," said Ellie. "I like you very much now; and I like coming here,
too."
"And perhaps," said the fairy, "you will learn to like going where you
don't like, and helping some one that you don't like, as Ellie has."
But Tom put his finger in his mouth, and hung his head down; for he did
not see that at all.
So when Mrs. Doasyouwouldbedoneby came, Tom asked her; for he thought in
his little head, She is not so strict as her sister, and perhaps she
may let me off more easily.
Ah, Tom, Tom, silly fellow! and yet I don't know why I should blame you,
while so many grown people have got the very same notion in their heads.
But, when they try it, they get just the same answer as Tom did. For,
when he asked the second fairy, she told him just what the first did,
and in the very same words.
Tom was very unhappy at that. And, when Ellie went home on Sunday, he
fretted and cried all day, and did not care to listen to the fairy's
stories about good children, though they were prettier than ever.
Indeed, the more he overheard of them, the less he liked to listen,
because they were all about children who did what they did not like, and
took trouble for other people, and worked to feed their little brothers
and sisters instead of caring only for their play. And, when she began
to tell a story about a holy child in old times, who was martyred by the
heathen because it would not worship idols, Tom could bear no mo
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