ere turned to Kenelm; "Mr. Brown has a very nice milch-cow that
was suddenly taken very ill, and both he and his wife were convinced
that the cow was bewitched."

"Of course it were, that stands to reason. Did not Mother Wright tell my
old woman that she would repent of selling milk, and abuse her dreadful;
and was not the cow taken with shivers that very night?"

"Gently, Brown. Mother Wright did not say that your wife would repent of
selling milk, but of putting water into it."

"And how did she know that, if she was not a witch? We have the best of
customers among the gentlefolks, and never any one that complained."

"And," answered Lily to Kenelm, unheeding this last observation, which
was made in a sullen manner, "Brown had a horrid notion of enticing
Mother Wright into his ferry-boat and throwing her into the water, in
order to break the spell upon the cow. But I consulted the fairies, and
gave him a fairy charm to tie round the cow's neck. And the cow is quite
well now, you see. So, Brown, there was no necessity to throw Mother
Wright into the water, because she said you put some of it into the
milk. But," she added, as the boat now touched the opposite bank, "shall
I tell you, Brown, what the fairies said to me this morning?"

"Do, Miss."

"It was this: If Brown's cow yields milk without any water in it, and
if water gets into it when the milk is sold, we, the fairies, will pinch
Mr. Brown black and blue; and when Brown has his next fit of rheumatics
he must not look to the fairies to charm it away."

Herewith Lily dropped a silver groat into Brown's hand, and sprang
lightly ashore, followed by Kenelm.

"You have quite converted him, not only as to the existence, but as to
the beneficial power of fairies," said Kenelm.

"Ah," answered Lily very gravely, "ah, but would it not be nice if there
were fairies still? good fairies, and one could get at them? tell them
all that troubles and puzzles us, and win from them charms against the
witchcraft we practise on ourselves?"

"I doubt if it would be good for us to rely on such supernatural
counsellors. Our own souls are so boundless that the more we explore
them the more we shall find worlds spreading upon worlds into
infinities; and among the worlds is Fairyland." He added, inly to
himself, "Am I not in Fairyland now?"

"Hush!" whispered Lily. "Don't speak more yet awhile. I am thinking over
what you have just said, and trying to understand it."

Thus wa