ng her more wood he had poured on some
oil and the flame had blazed up and burnt him.

When Jack and Nina reached the farmhouse Simon was on the floor,
groaning with pain.

Forgetting all the unkindness they had received at his hands, Jack and
Nina lifted him from the floor and placed him on his bed. Then they
did all they could to relieve his sufferings.

Nina bathed his face and hands and Jack bandaged them, and by and by he
fell asleep. When he awoke he asked for some gruel, and then he
remembered Brindle Cow.

"Poor creature!" said Simon. "I wish I had kept her even if she was
getting old; but it is too late now, for, of course, the butcher has
her."

Just then, "Moo, moo!" was heard outside, and for the first time since
he left her at the stream Jack thought of Brindle Cow.

"Why, there she is now!" he said. "I did not get to the butcher's this
morning because Nina called me before I had gone beyond the woods.

"I'll never sell her," said Simon. "Go out, Jack, and give her a good
dinner, and to-night see that she has a nice bed of straw in the barn."

That day for dinner Simon told Nina to have a good meat stew and that
Nina and Jack were to eat all they wanted.

Jack told Nina what had happened at the stream in the woods and asked
her if she thought the Fairy had anything to do with the accident that
happened to Simon.

"Of course not," said Nina. "Fairies always do good, not bad things,
and, besides, Simon must have been burnt at the very time you saw the
Fairy, and I wonder if you really did see a Fairy, after all. Are you
sure you did not fall asleep and dream it all?"

Jack was quite sure he did not dream it, but never again did Brindle
Cow speak--at least, Jack never heard her if she did.

But when Simon recovered from his burns and was quite well again
something did happen, and whether the Field Fairy and Brindle Cow had
anything to do with it Jack and Nina never knew.

Simon was a changed man, that was sure. He would not let Nina do the
work any more, but sent both of the children to school. He fixed up
the house and bought new furniture, and, best of all, he bought nice
clothing for Jack and Nina.

"And if you don't mind," said Simon to Jack and Nina one day, "I wish
you would call me Uncle Simon."

He even bought a nice horse and pretty willow carriage for the children
to drive to school; in fact, everybody thought Simon must have lost his
mind, he was so changed.

"It must b