“Goody gracious! where am I now?” said little Ruth.

“Yes, my dear, that’s my name,” said the little old woman, dropping a low courtesy, and then spinning round two or three times, and squatting down suddenly, so as to make what you call a cheese.

“Why, you don’t mean to say that’s your real name,” whispered little Ruth.

“To be sure it is! just as much as—­ And pray, my little creature, what’s your name?”

“Mine!  O, my name is Ruth Page, only Ruth Page.”  And up she jumped, and spun round among the strawberries and flowers, and tried to make a courtesy like the little old woman, and then they both burst out a-laughing together.

“Well,” said Goody Gracious, “you’re a nice, good-natured, funny little thing, I’ll say that for you, as ever I happened to meet with; but haven’t you another and a prettier name, hey?”

“Why, sometimes they call me little Teenty-Tawnty,” said Ruth.

“Fiddle-de-dee, I don’t like that name any better than the other:  we must give you a new name,” said the little old woman; “but first tell me,”—­and she grew very serious, and her little sharp eyes changed color,—­“first tell me how you happened to be here, in the very heart of Fairy-land, with nobody to take care of you, and not so much as a wasp or a bumble-bee to watch over you when you are asleep.”

“Indeed, and indeed, ma’am, I don’t know,” said little Ruth; “all I do know is, that I have been very naughty, and that I am drowned, and that I shall never see my poor dear mamma any more!” And then she up and told the whole story to the little old woman, crying bitterly all the while.

“Don’t take on so, my little dear, don’t, don’t!” said Goody Gracious; and out she whipped what appeared to Ruth nothing but a rumpled leaf of the tiger-lily, and wiped her eyes with it.  “Be a good child, and, after a trial of three days in Fairy-land, if you want to go back to your mother you shall go, and you may carry with you a token to her that you have told the truth.”

“O, bless your little dear old-fashioned face,” cried Ruth; “O, bless you, bless you! only give me a token that will make me always remember what I have promised my poor dear mother, and I shall be so happy! and I won’t ask for anything else.”

“What, neither for humming-birds, nor gold-fish, nor butterflies, nor diamonds, nor pearls, nor anything you have been wishing for so long, ever since you were able to read about Fairy-land?”

“No, ma’am; just give me a ring of wheat-straw, or a brooch from the ruby-beetle, if you like, and I shall be satisfied.”

“Be it so; but, before I change you to a fairy, you must make choice of what you want to see in Fairy-land for three days running; for, at the end of that time, I shall change you back again, so that if you are of the same mind then, you may go back to your mother, and, if not, you will stay with us for ever and ever.”