“I wish I could find my ring with the blue stone!”

At that the fairy clapped her tiny hands.  “That is a fine wish!” she cried.  “It will come true, and stay so.  But the others——­” and she shook her head sorrowfully.  Then she waved her magic wand three times in the air, and suddenly, in less than two jumps, if the ring with the blue stone, that Susie had lost, didn’t appear right on the end of the wand.  And it flew off and landed right on Susie’s paw.  Oh, wasn’t she glad!  And the fairy said:  “The ring will last, because that is blue, and I am blue, too.  Now, good bye, Susie.”  And with that she disappeared, changing into a butterfly with golden wings.  Then Susie started to get in the golden coach and ride home, but, would you believe me, if those horses didn’t run away, upsetting the coach and breaking it, and scattering all the ten boxes of chocolate-covered carrots all over.  Oh, how badly Susie felt, but it was just what the fairy said would happen.  The first two wishes didn’t last.  Anyhow, Susie had the ring, and she hurried home to tell her story.  Now, if it doesn’t rain to-morrow, the story to-morrow night will be about Sammie and the green fairy.

XXVII

SAMMIE AND THE GREEN FAIRY

When Susie told her brother Sammie about what happened to her in the woods, when she saw the blue fairy, the little rabbit boy remarked: 

“Aw, I guess you fell asleep and dreamed that, Susie.” for that’s the way with brothers sometimes.  I once had a brother, and he—­but there, I’ll tell you about him some other time.

“No,” answered Susie, “I didn’t dream it.  Why, here’s my ring to prove it,” and she held out the one with the blue stone in it.

“I guess you found that in the woods, where you lost it,” went on Sammie.  “I don’t believe in fairies at all.”

“But didn’t one cure Uncle Wiggily’s rheumatism?”

“Aw, well, I guess that would have gotten better anyhow.”

“It wouldn’t, so there!” exclaimed Susie.  “I just hope you see a fairy some day, and I hope they don’t treat you as kind as the one treated me, even if the horses did run away and disappear.”  But of course Susie didn’t really want anything bad to happen to her brother.  But you just wait and see what did happen.  Oh, it was something very, very strange, yes, indeed, and I’m not fooling a bit; no, indeed.  I wouldn’t make it out anything different than what it really was, not for a penny and a half.

Well, it happened about a week later.  Sammie was coming home from a ball game, which he had played with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail (of whom I will tell you later), and some others of his chums, and he was in a deep, dark part of the wood, when suddenly he heard a crashing in the bushes.

“Pooh!” exclaimed Sammie.  “I s’pose that’s one of them fairies.  I’m not going to notice her,” and with that he tossed his baseball up in the air, careless like, to show that he didn’t mind.  But he was a bit nervous, all the same, and his hand slipped and his best ball went right down in a deep, dark, muddy puddle of water.  Then Sammie felt pretty bad, I tell you, and he was going to get a stick to fish the ball out, when he heard the crashing in the bushes again, and what should appear but—­no, not a fairy, but bad, ugly fox.