A FAIRY STORY
When Gilbert took the pan of candy-molds from the open window of Mrs.
Pennell's kitchen, and, reaching in captured the heart-shaped box from
the table, his only intention was to keep them just long enough to
puzzle Ruth and Winifred and then return them. When the girls came back
to the kitchen he had run into the shed, and set box and pan in the open
drawer of the work-bench and closed it quickly, and had then gone home
to attend to some garden work, meaning to come back in an hour at the
longest; but his mother had sent him on an errand, and it was noon
before Gilbert remembered the candy; and then Winifred was telling the
story of its disappearance:
"You wouldn't think any one would be so mean as to take our candy," she
concluded, and Gilbert felt his face flush uncomfortably, and realized
that it was going to be very difficult to explain what he had intended
for a joke to Ruth and Winifred. In some way he must get that candy and
box back to the place from which he had taken it, or else tell the girls
what he had done; and this last alternative would be unpleasant. All
that afternoon he was on the alert for a chance to slip into the
Pennells' garden, enter the shed and rescue the hidden sweets; but the
day was warm and pleasant, and Ruth and Winifred with their dolls and
Hero were out-of-doors playing about in the shade of the maple tree
until it was too late for Gilbert to carry out his plan; so that he was
as uneasy and troubled as Ruth or Winifred over the missing candy, and
not until evening could he think of any way to recover it.
He was just closing the stable for the night when he noticed the shallow
basket of woven grass and twigs which Winifred had made on the eventful
afternoon's journey along the river road. The violets and wild
honeysuckle were now only dried up stems; but the basket looked
serviceable and attractive. Gilbert smiled as he picked it up. He knew
now exactly what he would do: he would get up very early the next
morning, gather daffodils and iris and then take the basket to Mrs.
Pennell's shed,--take the candy from the molds, fill the box, and
setting the box in Winifred's grass basket cover it with flowers; then
he would hang it to the knocker of the Pennells' front door.
"The girls will think the fairies did it for a May-day surprise," he
chuckled to himself, remembering that Winifred could never quite decide
about fairies: if there really were such wonderful little people or not.
So Gilbert was up before sunrise the next morning, and with a friendly
word to Hero, found it an easy matter to enter the shed quietly and take
the candy and box from the bench drawer. In a few moments he had filled
the box skilfully without breaking one of the tiny hearts, set it in the
basket and covered it with the spring blossoms. He was just about to
leave the shed when he heard a voice, and peering out saw Ruth bowing to
the lilac tree and saying in a low voice:
"Fairies, fairies, here I bow.
Will you kindly pardon now
That I did not hear or see
When you came to visit me?"
"Jiminy! It's that old fairy story Mother tells; and Ruth believes it,"
thought Gilbert, as he watched Ruth bowing low to a startled robin,
which flew up to a higher branch in the hawthorn tree. She was so much
absorbed in what she was doing that she did not hear the stealthy step
behind her on the soft grass as Gilbert swiftly set down the mold pan
and the basket, and flew back to the shop. He had just reached its
shelter when Ruth turned to go back to 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 the
story.
"Ruth seemed more pleased about the fairies than she did to get the
candy back," he concluded, "and I don't think there is any harm in
fairies, do you?"
"Why, no, Gilbert! I am always hoping that they really are true,"
replied his mother smilingly.
"Oh, Mother! You are as bad as Ruth," laughed Gilbert; "but do you think
I ought to tell Ruth that I hid the candy, and then brought it back?"
"No, not at present. Some time in the future you can tell Ruth about
it, if you wish, but I think it would be too bad to spoil her pleasure
to-day. But perhaps you had better ask Mrs. Pennell, and then do
whatever she thinks best," replied his mother.
The thought of telling Mrs. Pennell of his mischievous act made Gilbert
rather uncomfortable, but he responded promptly:
"All right, Mother. I'll go now," and ran toward the house to wash his
hands before presenting himself at Mrs. Pennell's door.
"So that was it. I could not imagine how it happened," said Mrs. Pennell
when Gilbert had told of hiding the candy, and of meaning to return it
as a May basket. She agreed with Mrs. Merrill that Ruth could be told
the facts later on, and did not seem to feel that Gilbert's joke had
been anything but natural and harmless, so Gilbert returned home with an
untroubled mind.
Betty had asked her little guests to be at her house at half-past ten
o'clock, and when Ruth and Winifred came down the street they saw a big
wagon with two big brown horses standing in front of Betty's house; just
behind the big wagon was a smaller one which Dinah was helping to load
with baskets and packages.
"That's the lunch wagon," said Winifred. "Oh, Ruth! I'm sure we are
going to have a beautiful time. What do you suppose Betty will say when
you tell her about the fairies?"
"I don't know. But probably she will think she is lucky to have a basket
made by fairies," responded Ruth, who did not know the story of the
basket that she carried so carefully.
"I made that basket. Truly I did, Ruth," Winifred declared eagerly.
Ruth's smile vanished. She stood still and looked at Winifred
accusingly.
"Then I suppose there weren't any fairies at all? If you made the basket
you probably put the candy in it and set it in my garden for me to find.
And you let me tell you all about bowing to the lilac tree, and never
said a word," exclaimed Ruth; "and I suppose you have been laughing at
me all the time," she concluded, a little choke coming in her throat at
the thought that her best friend, as well as the fairies, had failed
her.
Before Winifred could say a word Ruth ran ahead as fast as she could go.
Betty was on the steps, and a number of the girls who were going on the
picnic were with her. She greeted Ruth warmly, and when Ruth explained
that the basket was from Winifred and herself Betty was greatly pleased.
She was looking at the basket and box admiringly when Winnie appeared.
"Did Ruth tell you that is a fairy present?" she asked eagerly, and at
the little chorus of laughter and questions, Winifred went on and told
the story just as Ruth had told it to her, while Ruth stood by looking
rather sulky and unhappy. The moment Winifred finished Ruth stepped
forward and said:
"That's a good story, but it isn't true. About the fairies, I mean. Not
one word of it. And Winifred knows it isn't."