pring morning, by singing:

"Welcome, fairies good and kind;
Come in, come in, and welcome find."

In the story the fairies had brought wonderful gifts, but if they had
not been welcomed they would have taken the children's dearest
possessions, which could only be recovered by walking around the garden
just before sunrise and bowing low three times to the lilac, three times
to a robin, and three times with your eyes shut tight, repeating each
time:

"Fairies, fairies, here I bow.
Will you kindly pardon now
That I did not hear or see
When you came to visit me?"

Ruth was glad that she could remember it.

"I'll get up before sunrise to-morrow morning and do exactly as the
little girl did in the story when the fairies brought back her silver
heart, and then probably when I open my eyes there will be the box and
the candy," thought Ruth.

"Why, of course, it was because the box and the candies were
heart-shaped," she decided; "that's another reason I'm sure it was
fairies. It will be splendid if I can get them back. I won't tell
Winifred until after breakfast to-morrow. Won't she be surprised?"

Mrs. Pennell wondered a little that Ruth was in such good spirits the
rest of the day, after the disappearance of the candy, and that she was
so ready to go to bed at an hour earlier than the usual time.

CHAPTER XV

A FAIRY STORY

When Gilbert took the pan of candy-molds from the open window of Mrs.
Pennell's kitchen, and, reaching in captured the heart-shaped box from
the table, his only intention was to keep them just long enough to
puzzle Ruth and Winifred and then return them. When the girls came back
to the kitchen he had run into the shed, and set box and pan in the open
drawer of the work-bench and closed it quickly, and had then gone home
to attend to some garden work, meaning to come back in an hour at the
longest; but his mother had sent him on an errand, and it was noon
before Gilbert remembered the candy; and then Winifred was telling the
story of its disappearance:

"You wouldn't think any one would be so mean as to take our candy," she
concluded, and Gilbert felt his face flush uncomfortably, and realized
that it was going to be very difficult to explain what he had intended
for a joke to Ruth and Winifred. In some way he must get that candy and
box back to the place from which he had taken it, or else tell the girls
what he had done; and this last alternative wo