'Stop a moment,' said the boy. Stop and listen -hush-there now, do you hear them ringing? That is a sound you can never hear in-anywhere

but here.'

They listened with all their ears, you may be sure. Yes, as they grew accustomed to the exceeding stillness, to the clear thin fineness of the air, they heard the softest, sweetest tinkle you can imagine; a perfect fairy bell-ringing, and the longer they listened the clearer it grew.

'Oh, how wonderful!' said Mavis.

And Ruby added, 'I should think if we lived long enough in this country we should end by hearing the grass growing.'

'Perhaps,' said Winfried.

'But don't you miss the sea things?' Ruby went on. "You love them so, Winfried, and somehow you seem to belong to the sea.'

'So I do,' the boy replied.

The sea is my life. Coming here is only a rest and a holiday.'

'I wonder,' said Mavis, 'I wonder if there is a garden country for the sea to match this for the land. A place where seaweeds and corals and all the loveliest sea things are taken care of, like the wild flowers here?'

You may be sure there is,' said the fisher-boy, smiling. There is no saying what the princess won't have to show us, and where she won't take us now she has us in hand. Why, only to look into her eyes, you can see it-they seem to reach to everywhere; everywhere and everything beautiful seems in them.'

'You have seen farther into them than we have,' said Mavis thoughtfully. But still I think I can

understand what you mean.'

'So can I, a very little,' said Ruby. 'But-they are rather frightening too, don't you think?' 'They must be at first,' said Winfried.

But just then, a little way off, they caught sight of old Adam coming to meet them. His cottage was close by; they came upon it suddenly, for it stood half-hidden under the shelter of the hill they had been descending. Such a lovely cottage it was—so simple, yet so pretty; quite clean, with a cleanness you never see out of fairyland or places of that kind, with flowers of all kinds, forget-me-nots above all, clustering about it and peeping in at the windows.

Adam welcomed his little guests as kindly as if no unkind thought of him had ever entered Ruby's head; he made no difference between her and Mavis,

and I think this caused Ruby to feel more sorry than anything could have done.

If they had been happy that afternoon in the cottage by the sea, you can fancy how happy they were in this wonderful new fairy home of the good old man's. There was no end to the things he had to show them and teach them, mostly, I think, about flowers; things they had never dreamt of, beauties of form and colour such as it would be impossible for me to describe. And each time they came to see him he promised to show and teach them still more. But at last Winfried said they must be going.

'I promised the princess,' he said, for now he spoke of her quite openly to the children, ‘that I would take you home by the time the sun sets beside the castle, and it must be near that now.'

'And how are we to go home?' asked Ruby.
The boat is ready,' Winfried answered.

'But where's the sea for it to sail on?' whispered Ruby to Mavis. She had not the courage to ask Winfried any more.

'Wait and see,' said Mavis. 'I don't know, but it is sure to be all right.'

Then they bade Adam farewell, promising to come to visit him again whenever they should be allowed