"Oh! let's don't worry," suggested Alice. "Worrying is one of the very worst things you can do, especially when there is anything in it about a fairy. Don't you know that fairies are especially made not to worry? We will find our way somehow. Either a golden ball will appear and roll on before us to show us the right direction, or else a magical boat will suddenly come up in the water, and we can ride right to the place."

"Hu! What do we want of a boat?" asked Jimmie. "Can't we swim? I don't believe much in this fairy business, anyhow."

"Then, if you don't believe, you never will see the fairy prince,"

declared Alice. "Only those who believe in fairies can see them. I know, for I've read lots of fairy stories." You see Alice was very much in earnest about this matter.

So the three children swam on together over the pond, and the waters sparkled in the sun, until you would have thought there were thousands of diamonds floating on top. The breeze blew just enough to make little ripples, and altogether it was a very fine day. They went on and on, until pretty soon they were in a part of the pond they had never before visited.

Tall rushes grew on either side, and the long meadow gra.s.s came right down to the edge of the water and trailed in it, making little green caves in which to hide. It was cool and quiet there, and very lovely. The ducks liked it, but still there was no sign of the fairy prince; and the gold fish had not come to show them the way.

"I don't believe we'll ever see any fairy prince," said Jimmie.

"Oh! but the gold fish promised me," spoke Lulu.

"Hush!" cried Alice. "We must keep very quiet. We may meet the magical boat, or the golden ball, any minute."

And just then, what should happen, but that they heard a voice singing.

Yes, sir, just as true as I'm telling you, a voice singing, right down under the water. And this is what it sang, in silvery tones, just like the little bell that tinkles on p.u.s.s.y's neck:

The fairy prince lies deep and dark, Waiting for the firefly's spark; If you wish to see him now, Follow me, and make a bow.

And, all at once, who should appear but Fan Tail, the gold fish. She popped right out of the water, and when she saw the three duck children she asked:

"Did you hear me singing?"

"Was that you?" asked Lulu.

"It was," replied Fan. "But why don't you do as I said? If you wish to see the fairy prince you must bow. He always wants people to do that."

So Lulu and Jimmie bowed once, and Alice bowed three times, and when they asked why she did that she said you must always do things by threes where fairies are concerned.

"Now, follow me," called the gold fish; so they swam farther and farther up the part of the pond where they had never before been. It got smaller and smaller, until it was like a little brook, with rushes bending over it, while the water whispered to the green stems.

"The fairy prince lives in there," suddenly said the gold fish, poking her head up out of the water, so she could speak more plainly, and she pointed with her fin to a hole in the bank. "He will come out presently. Bow your prettiest." Well, you can just imagine how excited the duck children were.

Alice fairly trembled, and even Jimmie was interested, as they all bowed.

"All ready now!" went on the gold fish. "Behold the fairy prince. Behold!

Behold!" and she made a booming noise under the water, just like the big ba.s.s drum, when a man in the circus jumps over sixteen elephants and a quarter all at once.

Then, all of a sudden, oh! maybe in a second and a little more what should come out of that hole in the side of the bank, just above the water, what, I say, should come out of that hole--now be careful, take tight hold of the arms of the chair, and hold your breaths, so as not to be disappointed, what should come out of the hole but a big, brownish-black, spotted with red and yellow, wrinkle-legged, hard-sh.e.l.led, sharp-beaked mud turtle! There, now!

At first the duck children were so frightened and surprised that they did not know what to do or say. They had expected something so different. Did you? Well, I'm awfully sorry, but you know I'm not responsible. I merely tell what happens.

"Why, that isn't a fairy prince!" cried Jimmie, speaking first.

"Of course not," added Lulu.

Then the gold fish came quite close to them and whispered something.

"Do you know," said Fan Tail, "I have always had my doubts about it myself. He says he's the fairy prince--insists on it, in fact,--and he has it engraved on his visiting cards. But I have my doubts, only I don't dare say so, for you see I work for him, run errands and the like of that; so far be it from me to say he is not a fairy prince. I have, however, guided you to him. Behold, the fairy prince!" and she called the last real loudly, for the mud turtle was looking right at her. Then she added in a whisper: "But I have my doubts."

"Hush! Oh hush, please!" begged Alice. "Of course he is a fairy prince!

They are always disguised like that--always appearing as something different from what they really are, you know. Sometimes they are toads, and sometimes frogs, and sometimes mud turtles, I suppose, though I never heard of any of the last kind. But of course he is a fairy prince." Then she bowed again, three times, and said: "Fairy prince, I salute thee."

"Fairy nothing!" grunted Jimmie. "He is no more a fairy than I am."

Then the mud turtle heard them talking, and he stuck his head farther out of the sh.e.l.l, and he looked around with his snaky neck, and he came a little more out of the hole, and said:

"Of course I am the fairy prince. Everybody knows that. I've been a fairy prince for ever and ever so long." And then he sneezed, just to show that, though he was a fairy prince, he was not proud.

"What shall I do, O fairy prince, to change you back into your own rightful shape?" asked Alice. "Tell me, and I will do it at once. Dost thou need three drops of magical water?"

"No," answered the mud turtle, "not any at all, thank you, so much. I am a fairy prince, but I am satisfied with my shape as I am; and I do not want to change. I have always been this way, and I always want to stay so.

Please be so kind as to go away. I want to eat my dinner."

So they hurried away, for the gold fish whispered that the mud turtle was always cross when he ate. Jimmie and Lulu were much disappointed, but Alice was not, for she insisted that the mud turtle was really wonderful, and was a fairy prince in disguise. Now what do you think about it? I leave it to you. But whatever you may think please don't be hasty. Take plenty of time. Perhaps you had better wait for the story to-morrow night, which if the cow bell doesn't ring and awaken the doll in the baby carriage will be about how Grandfather Goosey-Gander got into trouble and out again.

STORY IX

GRANDFATHER GOOSEY-GANDER IN TROUBLE

On their way home, after having seen the mud turtle fairy prince, Jimmie, Lulu and Alice Wibblewobble, of course, talked of nothing else. They wished the prince had done something wonderful, instead of merely sending them away when he ate his dinner, and they hoped he would perform a magical feat another time. He really did, as I shall tell you about later, if I do not forget it. The gold fish swam a little way back with the duck children, as she said the prince always liked to be alone when he ate.

"Well, how did you like him?" asked Fan Tail of the ducks.

"Not very much," replied Lulu. "I never did care for mud turtles."

"Nor I," added Jimmie.

"I don't believe he was really a mud turtle at all," declared Alice. "He was a real, truly, fairy prince, and he only looked like a mud turtle, because we did not have the right kind of eyes with which to see him or else because we had no faith in him. It is always so, in fairy stories.

You must believe, or you can't see the beautiful things."

"Well, I'd rather have some snails to eat," said Jimmie. "You don't care how they look; it's how they taste. I'm never going to bother with fairies again."

It was about three days after this that Jimmie and Lulu were walking in the deep, green woods, under the trees, picking tender leaves and roots to eat. They were hoping they might meet Johnnie and Billie Bushytail, the squirrels whom they had not seen for some time. Alice stayed home to curl her feathers.

All at once, as they were walking along, the little boy and girl duck heard a funny noise.

"What's that?" cried Jimmie.

"I don't know," answered Lulu. "It sounds like some one calling."

And, sure enough, it was. As they stopped to listen they could hear some one crying: "Help! Help! Oh, help!"

"Let's go and see who it is," suggested Jimmie.