"Well, we will not overpower you. For a day or two you must rest, and do
nothing but breathe the sweet air. I have to be busy getting things in
order and looking after my garden. Lisa will take her work on the
piazza, and you can lie in one of the easy-chairs. Joe is to wait on
you, and do a little weeding, and keep the paths in order, and bail out
the boat; and the old man seems to be very much at home already. So that
is the order of the day. Now good-bye, and don't do too much thinking."

"One moment, Miss Schuyler; do you believe in fairies?"

"Just a little," said Miss Schuyler, with a quizzical smile.

"Well, I believe in them," said Phil, "and I think you are one of the
best of them."

"Oh no, I am very human, dear Phil, as you will find out. And now I must
go look after my strawberry-beds. Good-bye."

"Good-bye," said Phil, waving her a kiss. "Only think, Lisa, we will
actually see strawberries growing! It is quite fairy-land for me."

After that he was carried down to the easy-chair on the piazza, where he
could see the lawn sloping down to the lake, and watch the birds
lighting on the rim of a vase full of daisies and running vines. He
could see that the cottage was low and broad, and painted in two shades
of brown; and that there were arbors covered with grape-vines on one
side, and on the other he knew there were flower-beds and fruit-trees,
for every once in a while Miss Rachel was to be seen emerging from there
in a broad straw hat and with buck-skin gloves, trailing long bits of
string or boughs of green stuff, with scissors and trowel and
watering-can.

Lisa had her work-basket, and with deft fingers and a little undertone
of psalmody was fashioning a pretty summer garment. Then Miss Rachel
came and tossed a basketful of early roses and syringa down beside Phil,
and put a little table beside him, with some slender glass vases and a
pitcher of water, and asked him to arrange the flowers for her. This he
was glad to do, and made the bunches up as prettily as his nice taste
suggested. But he was really wearied with great happiness. It was all so
new, so charming, every sense was so satisfied, that at last he closed
his eyes and slept.

It seemed to him only a little while, but when he opened his eyes again
Lisa was beside him with his dinner; and after dinner he slept again,
and when he awakened the lawn was in shadow, and the sun low in the sky,
and the birds were twittering and seeking their nests