was like a scene
from the opera. They watched the fire; how the flames leaped and
crackled; yet they were dying down. The fire made a bright contrast to
the dark fir-woods which formed the background to the picture. The glory
died from the sky; but yet it was strangely light; darker and darker
grew the woods near the fire. Suddenly Lotty espied bright sparks among
the trees.

"I do believe they have set the wood on fire," said mother.

"O no, mother, don't you see; let us crouch down and hide; it is the
fairies: they are coming to the fire."

The air was suddenly full of bright beings.

"There is a wood fire on the hill;
High on the heath it glimmers still.
Who are these beings in the air
With gauzy robes and flowing hair?
Is it the wreathing smoke I see
That forms itself so curiously?

Nay, they alight: they form a ring,
Around the flickering fire spring,
And from those embers burning low
They light their wands, they gleam, they glow,
Like firework stars of rainbow hue,
Green, yellow, orange, lilac, blue!

Ah what a scene, how wild, how strange!
The stars each moment break and change
In thousand colours; look on high:
Each slender wand points to the sky,
Then waves and trembles: lo afar
On lonely woods falls many a star!"

And all this Trudel had missed. It seemed too great a pity, with that
silly old card playing.

Spellbound mother and Lotty watched the fairies at their revels, till
Lottchen began to shiver.

"We really must go home," whispered mother. "Trudel will be anxious."

"Oh, but mother I want to dance round the fire with the fairies, and I
want a fairy wand with shooting stars," said Lotty almost aloud.

Suddenly it seemed as if the fairies became aware that they were
observed. They vanished away, and all became dark. Lottchen said she
could hear the sound of little feet stamping out the fire.

"Fairies, dear fairies, come again, do," said Lotty.

No answer, perfect stillness, not even a leaf stirred.

"Well, you are not so polite as our tree man, not half," said Lotty,
"though you are so pretty. Good night," she shouted.

There was a sound of suppressed laughter; then from hill and dale the
word "good night" was echoed all around. Spellbound, as if in a trance,
they moved toward the farm. Trudel was wild with herself when she heard
what she had missed.

"_To-morrow_," she said, but to-morrow is sometimes a long, long way
off, and the fairies did