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Counterpane Fairy (version 2)

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<h2>CHAPTER NINTH. DOWN THE RAT-HOLE.</h2> The next day Teddy was allowed to go about and follow mamma into the sewing-room, where he had the little cutting-table drawn out and his toys put on it, and played for a long time. In the afternoon Harriett stopped for a little while, and as soon as Teddy saw her his thoughts went back to the Counterpane Fairy and the story, and he cried out: “Oh, Harriett! I know what you dreamed last night.” “What did I dream?” asked Harriett. “Why, you dreamed about the soap-bubbles and me; didn’t you?” “How did you know I dreamed that?” asked Harriett. Then Teddy told her all about standing by the lake and seeing the dreams go past, and how he had shut the ugly one up in the toy-closet. Harriett listened with great interest. “Wasn’t that a funny dream?” she cried when he had ended. “A dream!” said Teddy. “Why, that wasn’t a dream, Harriett. That’s the story the Counterpane Fairy showed me. And don’t you know you did dream about the bubbles?” Harriet was silent awhile as if pondering it, and then she said, “My canary-bird flew away this morning.” “Who let it out?” asked Teddy, with interest. “Did you?” Harriett hesitated. “Well, I didn’t exactly let it out,” she said. “I guess I forgot to close the door after I cleaned its cage.” Then she added hastily: “But mamma hung the cage outside the window, and she says she thinks maybe it’ll come back unless someone has caught it.” Teddy wanted to hear a great deal more about the canary, but Harriett said she must go now, so he was left alone again to play with his toys. After dinner his mother went down-town to buy a present for Harriett, for the next day was to be the little girl’s birthday. Teddy wanted to get her a bag of marbles, but she thought perhaps she would be able to find something Harriett would like better than that. She would look about and see. Before she went she made Teddy lie down on the bed, and covered him over with the silk quilt, so that he might rest for a while. Then she kissed him and told him to try to take a nap, and promised to be back soon. After she had gone Teddy dozed comfortably for a while. Then he grew wide awake again, and turning over on his back he raised his knees into a hill, and lay looking out of the window, and wondering when mamma would come home, and what she would bring with her. “You’re not asleep, are you?” asked a little voice from his knees. “Oh, Counterpane Fairy, I’m so glad you’ve come,” cried Teddy, “for mamma has gone down-town, and I was just beginning to get lonely.” There was the familiar little figure in the brown cloak and hood, seated on top of the counterpane hill, and as he spoke she looked down on him smilingly. “I suppose the next thing will be a story,” she said. “Oh! will you show me one?” cried Teddy. “I wish you would, for I don’t know when mamma will be home.” “Very well,” said the fairy. “Perhaps I can show you one before she comes back. Which square shall it be this time?” “I’ve had the red, and the yellow, and the green, and ever so many: I wonder if that brown one has a good story to it.” “You might choose it and see,” said the fairy. So Teddy chose that one, and then the fairy began to count. “One, two, three, four, five,” she counted, and so on and on until she reached “FORTY-NINE!” <hr /> “Why, how funny!” cried Teddy. He was nowhere at all but on the back door-step, and he sat there just as naturally as though he were not in a story at all. Then the back gate opened, and in through it came a little withered old woman, wearing a brown cloak, and a brown hood drawn over her head. “Why, Counterpane Fairy!” cried Teddy, but when she raised her head and looked at him he saw that it was not the Counterpane Fairy after all, but an old Italian woman carrying a basket on her arm. “You buy something, leetle boy?” she said. “I can’t,” said Teddy. “I haven’t any money except what’s in my bank, but I’ll ask Hannah and maybe she will.” So saying he ran into the kitchen. The clock was ticking on the wall, and the room smelled of fresh-baked bread, but it was empty. Opening the door of the stairway, Teddy called, “Hannah! Hannah!” There was no answer; it all seemed strangely still upstairs. “She must have gone out,” Teddy said to himself. When he went back to the outside door the old Italian had put down her basket and was sitting on the step beside it. She did not seem at all surprised when he told her he could not find anyone. “You not find anyone, and you not have money,” she said. “Then I tell you what I do; you put your hand in dis baskit, and I give you what you take; I make what you call ‘present.’” “Will you really?” cried Teddy. “Yis,” said the little old woman, smiling, and her smile was just like the smile of the Counterpane Fairy. “And you’ll give me whatever I take?” “Yis,” said the little old woman again. Teddy put his hand in under the cover and caught hold of something hard and cold. He pulled and pulled at it, and out it came; it was a little iron shovel. “You take something more,” said the little old woman. Teddy hesitated, but when he looked at her again he saw that she really meant it, so he put his hand in and this time he pulled out a large iron key. “Now try once more,” said the little old woman, and this third time it was a rat-trap baited with cheese, that Teddy drew from the basket. “But what shall I do with them?” he asked. “You keep dem,” said the old Italian, “and you find you need dem by and by.” Then she rose, and pulling her cloak over the basket she took her staff in her other hand and hobbled down the pathway. Teddy slipped the key into his pocket, and holding the shovel and the trap he ran down to the gate to open it for her. He stood looking after her as she went on down the street, her staff striking the bricks sharply, tap! tap! tap! Her back was certainly exactly like the Counterpane Fairy’s. As he walked slowly up the path swinging his shovel by the handle, he noticed that there was a rat-hole just back of the rain-butt, and he thought what fun it would be to dig it out, so he put the cage down on the ground and set to work with his shovel. The earth broke away from the rat-hole in great clods, and he found it so easy to dig that very soon he had made quite a big hole. Then he saw that down in this hole there was a flight of stone steps leading into the earth. “Why, isn’t that funny!” said Teddy. “Right in the back yard, too. I wonder where they go!” Tucking the shovel under his arm and taking the trap in his hand, Teddy stepped into the rat-hole and began to go down the stairs. He went on down and down and down, and at last he came to an iron door, and it was locked. Teddy tried it and knocked, but there was no answer. He listened with his ear against it, but he heard nothing, and he was just about to turn and go up the stairs again, when he remembered the key the little old woman had given him. He pulled it out of his pocket, and when he tried it in the keyhole it fitted exactly. He turned it, the door flew open, and Teddy stepped through. Beyond was a cave, just such as he had often wished he could live in, with a rough table and chair, old kegs, and a heap of rubbish in one corner. On each side of the cave was a heavy door studded with iron nails. “I will just see where these doors lead to,” said Teddy to himself, laying his trap and his shovel behind one of the kegs. As he reached the first door and put his hand on it he heard someone singing the other side of it as sweetly and clearly as a bird, and this is what the voice sang: “In field and meadow the grasses grow; The clouds are white and the winds they blow. Out in the world there is much to see, If I were but free! If I were but free! My wings were bright and my wings were strong; I plumed myself and I sang a song: Where is the hero to rescue me, And set me free? And set me free?” The song ended and Teddy opened the door. Within was another room that looked almost like the first, only there was a fireplace in it, and in front of this fireplace a young girl was sitting. As soon as Teddy opened the door she looked over her shoulder, and when she saw him she sprang to her feet with a glad cry and clasped her hands. “Oh!” she cried, “have you come to rescue me?” “Who are you?” asked Teddy, wondering at her. She was very beautiful. Her eyes were as bright and black as a sloe, her hair shone like threads of pure gold, and she wore a long cloak of golden feathers over her shoulders. When Teddy spoke she answered him, “I am Avis, the Bird-maiden.” “And how did you come here?” asked Teddy. Then the Bird-maiden told him how she used to live in a golden castle that was all her own; how she ate from crystal dishes and bathed every morning in a little marble bath-tub, and had nothing to do all day but swing in her golden swing and sing for her own pleasure. But after a while she grew tired of all this and began to wonder what the outside world was like, and one the day the sun was so bright and the air so sweet that she left her home and flew out into the wide, wide world. That was all very pleasant until she grew tired and sat down on a stone to rest. Then a great brown robber came and caught her and carried her down into his den, and there he kept her a prisoner in spite of her tears and prayers, and there she must wait on him and keep his house in order; every day he went out and left her along, coming back loaded down with food or golden treasure that he had stolen. “But why don’t you run away?” asked Teddy. “I would.” “Alas! I can’t,” said the Bird-maiden, “for whenever the robber-magician goes out he locks the door after him, and I have no key to open it.” Then Teddy told her that he had a key that would unlock the door and that he would save her. The Bird-maiden was very glad, but she said they must make haste, for it was almost time for the robber to come home; so she wrapped her cloak around her, and Teddy took her by the hand and together they ran to the door. They had hardly reached the outer cave, however, when Teddy heard a loud bang that echoed and re-echoed from the walls. “Alas! Alas!” cried the Bird-maiden, shrinking back and beginning to wring her hands, “we are too late. There comes the robber, and now we will never escape.” She had scarcely said this when in marched the robber-magician sure enough. He wore a great soft hat pulled down over his face, and he had a long brown nose and little black beads of eyes. His mustache stuck out on each side like swords, and he carried a great sack over his shoulder. The robber-magician threw the sack down on the floor and frowned at Teddy from under his hat. “How now!” he cried. “Who’s this who has come down into my cavern without even so much as a ‘by your leave’?” Teddy felt rather frightened, but he spoke up bravely. “I’m Teddy,” he said, “and I didn’t know this was your cave. I thought it was just a rat-hole.” “A rat-hole!” cried the robber-magician, bursting into a roar of laughter. “A rat-hole! My cave a rat-hole! Ho! ho! ho!” “Yes, I did,” said Teddy, “and I didn’t know it was yours, but if you want me to go I will.” “Not so fast,” said the robber. “Sometimes it is easier to come into my cave than to go out, and you must sit down and have some supper with me now that you are here.” Teddy was quite willing to do that, for he was really hungry, so he and the robber drew chairs up to the table, and the Bird-maiden, at a gesture from the robber, picked up the sack that he had thrown upon the ground, and out from it she drew some pieces of bread and some bits of cold meat. It did not look particularly good, but it seemed to be all there was, so when the robber began to eat Teddy helped himself too. The robber-magician did not take off his hat, and he ate very fast; after a while he leaned back in his chair and began to tell Teddy what a great magician he was, and about his treasure chamber. “There,” he said, “is where I keep my gold. I have gold, and gold, and gold, great bars and lumps and crusts of gold, all piled up in my treasure chamber.” At last he rose, pushed back his chair, and bade Teddy follow him and he should see how great and rich he was. Leading the way across the cave, he unlocked the third door, and flinging it open stepped back so that Teddy might look in. As he opened it a very curious smell came out. Teddy stared and stared about the treasure chamber. “But where is the gold?” he said. “There, right before your eyes,” said the robber. “Don’t you see it?” “Why, that isn’t gold. That’s nothing but cheese,” cried Teddy. “Cheese! cheese!” cried the robber-magician, stamping his foot in a rage; “I tell you it’s gold.” “It isn’t! it’s cheese!” said Teddy. “Look! I have some just like it; I’ll show you,” and running to the keg where he had left his trap he pulled it out and held it up for the robber to see. As soon as the robber-magician saw the cheese in the trap his fingers began to work and his mouth to water. “Oh, what a fine rich piece of gold!” he cried. “How do you get it out?” “I don’t know,” said Teddy. “I don’t think it comes out.” “There must be some way,” cried the robber. “Let me see,” and taking the trap from Teddy he put it down on the floor and began to pick and pry at the bars, but he could not get the cheese out, and the more he tried the more eager he grew. “There’s one way,” he muttered to himself, looking up at Teddy suspiciously from under his slouch hat. “How is that?” asked Teddy. “If one were only a rat one could get at it fast enough,” said the robber-magician. “Yes, but you’re not,” said Teddy. “All the same it might be managed,” said the magician. Again he tore and tore at the bars, and he grew so eager that he seemed to forget about everything but the cheese. “I’ll do it,” he cried, “yes, I will.” Then he laid of his great soft hat, and crossing his forefingers he cried: “Innocent me! Innocent me! As I was once again I will be.” And now the magician’s nose grew longer, his mustache grew thin and stiff like whiskers, his sword changed to a long tail, and in a minute he was nothing at all but a great brown rat that ran into the trap. “Click!” went the trap, and there he was fastened in with the cheese. It was in vain that he shook the bars and squeaked. “Quick! quick!” cried the Bird-maiden, “let us escape before he can use his spells.” She caught Teddy by the hand, and together they ran to the door that led to the stairway. “Your key! Oh, make haste!” cried the Bird-maiden, breathlessly. In a moment Teddy had unlocked the door they had passed through, and it had swung to behind them. Up the stairs they ran, and there they were standing in the sunlight near the rain-butt. “I am free! I am free!” cried the Bird-maiden, joyously. “Oh! thank you, little boy. And now for home.” She caught the edges of her cloak and spread it wide, and as she did so it changed to wings, her head grew round and covered with feathers, and with a glad cry she sprang from the earth and flew up and away and out of sight through the sunlight. “Why, it’s Harriett’s canary!” cried Teddy. <hr /> “And now I must go,” said the Counterpane Fairy. Teddy was back in the India-room. The sun was low, and a broad band of pale sunlight lay across the foot of the bed. The fairy was just starting down the counterpane hill. “Was it really Harriett’s canary?” asked Teddy. “I haven’t time to talk of that now,” cried the Counterpane Fairy, “for I hear your mother coming. Good-bye! good-bye!” And sure enough she had scarcely disappeared behind the counterpane hill when his mamma came in. “Oh, Mamma!” cried Teddy, “do you think Harriett’s canary came back? “I don’t know, dear,” said his mother. Then she put a little package into his hand. “Do you think Harriett will like that?” she asked. When Teddy opened the bundle he saw a cunning little bisque doll that sat in a little tin bath-tub. You could take the doll out and dress it, or you could really bathe it in the tub. “Oh! isn’t that cute!” cried Teddy, with delight. “Won’t little Cousin Harriett be pleased!” “I hope she will,” said mamma. <div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/bar.gif" width-obs="436" height-obs="64" alt="" /></div> <div class="fig"> <ANTIMG src="images/cpf10.gif" width-obs="434" height-obs="197" alt="Picture" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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