warm, steamy fragrance, and in the window there was a great pan
of red-brown doughnuts dusted over with powdered sugar. As the
smell was like the smell of the bakeshop near home, and as the
doughnuts looked the same, David instantly plucked up courage. He
hurried on, confident that he would soon be climbing up into
Mother's lap. It was some time, though, before he found a house
with a white paling, and he was distrustful of the house; it had
no curtains, and it scowled so. He decided to experiment first
with the fence-post. Maybe the house would look more reasonable,
and maybe things would feel different if he were to climb up on
the fence-post. So presently, when he was perched above the gate,
he closed his eyes and began kicking his heels as he did when at
home.

This was another experiment; for every boy knows that you cannot
hope to see any fairies or any fairy godmothers unless you take
them by surprise. David, for his part, frequently gave them to
understand that he wasn't looking. He would shut his eyes tight
and kick his feet to prove that he was minding his own business.
If they saw him like that, maybe they wouldn't care if he was so
close to them. After convincing them that his intentions were
honorable, he would suddenly pop open his eyes to catch them at
their tricks.

Once he almost saw them. The tulip bed had seemed to dance in the
sunlight like a whirlpool of scarlet and yellow fire; then it
stopped abruptly, but the blossoms still nodded and stirred, even
after the wild dance was done. He was confident that he had come
very near to seeing the fairies, but now he did not want to see
them. They had done something to the house where Mother lived,
and he wanted them to undo it. He would not look. They would
please understand that this time he did not mean to deceive them.

"Cross my heart," he murmured very solemnly, and gave the pledge.

But it did no good. They would not undo the queer things they had
done to the house. They were spiteful and mean, and not to be
trusted. The house remained without trees and vines, a scowling,
ugly thing. The garden had no shrubs; the seeded grass was matted
down and yellow, like hay, and there were bald places where the
gray ground was showing through.

They did not know, those foolish fairy folk, of the courage and
the faith that may be in the heart of a little boy. They might be
stubborn if they chose; they might keep him waiting, but in the
end they would not