the house and saw the basket.

She looked at it for a moment as if she could hardly believe her eyes;
and as she stooped to pick it up Ruth fully expected that basket, pan
and tin molds would all vanish from sight. But no! They were real; and,
quite as Ruth expected, the box, filled with candy hearts, was under the
flowers.

"Oh! what will Winifred say?" she whispered to herself. And then she
bowed to the lilac tree and to the robin, and said, "Thank you, kind
fairies. I will always know now that you are true and kind," and then
Ruth ran into the house to wake up her mother and tell her this
wonderful story, and show her the basket in proof of the fairies' visit.

Gilbert hurried home. He was delighted with the success of his plan, but
a little troubled that Ruth should believe so implicitly that fairies
had first taken and then returned the candy.

Mrs. Pennell listened to Ruth's story and looked at the basket with as
much wonder and surprise as even Ruth could expect. Although she did not
deny that fairies had a hand in the return of the candy, she endeavored
to explain to herself just how it could have occurred. But she
remembered how much happiness she herself had had as a small girl in
believing in good fairies, and was quite willing that her own little
daughter should have the same pleasure.

The Merrills were just sitting down to an early breakfast when Ruth came
over to tell Winifred that the candy had been found, but she did not
tell all the story, for she knew Gilbert laughed at fairies.

"I'll tell you all about it on the way to Betty's," she said, for it had
been arranged that Betty's guests should all meet at her house, where
the wagons would be in readiness to take them to a favorite picnic
ground, a green sloping field on the banks of the Schuylkill River,
where there were groups of wide-spreading elms and where many spring
flowers grew.

Winifred was so eager to hear about the return of the candy that she
could hardly wait to finish her breakfast. Ruth had not lingered after
telling the great news, but had run home to make ready for the picnic.

Gilbert continued to feel uneasy about his part in the fairy story, and
after Ruth and Winifred had started for the May party he followed his
mother into the garden and offered to help her transplant the young
seedlings.

"Mother, do you think there is any harm in believing in fairies?" he
asked, and before his mother could reply Gilbert was telling her