dreaming when
she longed for her remembered home."

Little One looked at her soiled dress; but the stains had disappeared;
and, most wonderful! all the jewels she had worn on her neck and
arms, and in her girdle, were there yet, burning with increased
brilliancy. Little One gazed again, and counted to see if any were
missing. Yes: two she had sold for bread were not there. It was the
jewels she had _given away_ which had come back in some mysterious
manner and were more resplendent than before.

"Ah!" said she, with a beaming smile, "now I know what it means when
they say, 'All you give, you will carry with you.' It was delightful
to scatter my gems by the wayside; but I did not think they would all
be given back to me when I reached home!"

Then, intwining arms with a bright sylphid, she flew with her over the
gardens in a trance of delight.

"Here," said Little One, "is my own dear garden. I remember the border
and the paths right well; but it never bore such golden fruit, it
never glowed with such beautiful flowers."

"Your fairy, the one you call Whisper, has taken care of it for your
sake," said the sister sylphid. "Do you know that those flowers, and
those trees with fruit like 'bonny beaten gold,' have been watered by
your tears, Little One? It is in this way they have attained their
matchless beauty and grace."

"_My tears_, little sister?"

"Yes, your tears. Every one you shed upon earth, your fairy most
carefully preserved; and see what wonders have been wrought!"

"If I had known that," said Little One clapping her hands, "I would
have been _glad_ of all my troubles! I would have smiled through my
tears!"

Now I know no more than I have told of this story of the Lost
Sylphid. I tell the tale as 'twas told to me; and I wish, with all my
heart, it were true.

THE CASTLE OF GEMS.

Once upon a time, though I cannot tell when, and in what country I do
not now remember, there lived a maiden as fair as a lily, as gentle as
a dewdrop, and as modest as a violet. A pure, sweet name she had,--it
was Blanche.

She stood one evening, with her friend Victor, by the shore of a lake.
Never had the youth or maiden seen the moonlight so enchanting; but
they did not know

"It was midsummer day,
When all the fairy people
From elf-land come away."

Presently, while they gazed at the lake, which shone like liquid
emerald and sapphire and topaz, a boat, laden with strangely
beautiful beings