ace. Somebody owes me
an explanation."

"It's only an old gate with a mammoth pair of scissors swung on a
medallion above it," said Mr. Sherman. "They were put there by a
half-crazy old man who built the place, by the name of _Ciseaux_. Joyce
Ware spent a winter in sight of it, and she came back with some wonderful
tale about the scissors being the property of a prince who went around
doing all sorts of impossible things with them. I believe the girls have
actually come to think that the scissors are enchanted."

"Oh, Papa Jack, stop teasin'!" said the Little Colonel. "You know we
don't!"

"If it is really settled that we are to go there to-morrow, I want to hear
the story," said Cousin Carl. "I make a practice of reading the history of
a place before I visit it, so I'll have to know the story of the gate in
order to take a proper interest in it."

"Come into the parlour," said Mrs. Sherman rising. "Betty will tell us."

As she turned, she saw Fidelia looking after the girls with wistful eyes,
and she read the longing and loneliness in her face.

"Wouldn't you like to come too, and hear the fairy tale with us?" she
asked, kindly holding out her hand.

A look of happy surprise came over Fidelia's face, and before she could
stammer out her acceptance of the unlooked-for invitation, Mrs. Sherman
drew her toward her and led her into the little circle in one corner of
the parlour.

"Now, we are ready, Tusitala," said Mrs. Sherman, settling herself on the
sofa, with Fidelia beside her. Shaking back her brown curls, Betty began
the fairy tale that Joyce's Cousin Kate had told one bleak November day,
to make the homesick child forget that she was "a stranger in a strange
land."

"Once upon a time, in a far island of the sea, there lived a king with
seven sons."

Word for word as she had heard it, Betty told the adventures of the
princes ("the three that were dark and the three that were fair"), and
then of the middle son, Prince Ethelried, to whom the old king gave no
portion of his kingdom. With no sword, nothing but the scissors of the
Court Tailor, he had been sent out into the world to make his fortune.
Even Cousin Carl listened with close attention to the prince's adventures
with the Ogre, in which he was victorious, because the grateful fairy whom
he had rescued laid on the scissors a magic spell.

"Here," she said, giving them into his hands again, "because thou wast
persevering and fearless in setting me f