boggarts so long."

The father was delighted to find how helpful his boys had become. The
grandmother, however, could hardly believe that a real brownie had not
been in the house. But as she sat in her chair day after day watching
the boys at their work, she often repeated her favorite saying,
"Children are a blessing."

* * * * *

THE STORY OF PETER PAN

Once upon a time there were three children named Wendy, John, and
Michael, who lived with their father and mother in London. One evening
the father and mother were invited to a party, and the mother, after
lighting the dim lamp in the nursery and kissing them good-night, went
away. That evening a little boy climbed in through the window, whose
name was Peter Pan. He was a curious little fellow, very conceited,
very forgetful, and yet very lovable. The most remarkable thing about
him was that he never grew up. There came flitting in through the
window with him his fairy, whose name was Tinker Bell. Peter Pan woke
all the children up, and after he had sprinkled fairy dust on their
shoulders, he took them away to the Neverland, where he lived with a
family of lost boys. Tinker Bell was jealous of the little girl Wendy,
and she hurried ahead of Peter Pan and persuaded the boys that Wendy
was a bird who might do them harm, and so one of the boys shot her
with his bow and arrow.

When Peter Pan came and found Wendy lying lifeless upon the ground in
the woods he was very angry, but he was also very quick-witted. So
he told the boys that if they would build a house around Wendy he was
sure that she would be better. So they hurried to collect everything
they had out of which they could make a house. Though she was not yet
strong enough to talk, they thought perhaps she might sing the kind of
house she would like to have, so Wendy sang softly this little verse:

"I wish I had a pretty house,
The littlest ever seen,
With funny little red walls
And roof of mossy green."

When the house was done Peter Pan took John's hat for the chimney, and
the little house was so pleased to have such a capital chimney that
smoke at once began to come out through the hat. All that night Peter
Pan walked up and down in front of Wendy's house, to watch over her
and keep her from danger while she slept.

All these children lived in an underground cave, and the next day,
when Wendy got well, they all went down into the cave and Wendy agreed