180 MABEL ON MIDSUMMER DAY. "Thou shalt do well whate'er thou dost, Shalt have the will and power to please, Thus having said, she passed from sight, But the little bird, the sky-blue bird, "And now go," said the grandmother, Beneath the trees they lie." Away went kind, good Mabel, Into the fir-wood near, Where all the ground was dry and brown, She did not wander up and down, And when the wild-wood brownies Came sliding to her mind, She drove them thence, as she was told, With home-thoughts sweet and kind. But all that while the brownies Within the fir-wood still, They watched her how she picked the wood, And strove to do no ill. "And, oh, but she is small and neat," A creature so demure and meek, "Look only," said another, "At her little gown of blue: At her kerchief pinned about her head, "Oh, but she is a comely child," With that the smallest penny, Upon the dry and slippery path, 182 MABEL ON MIDSUMMER DAY. With joy she picked the penny up, And with her fagots dry and brown "Now she has that," said the brownies, "Twill buy her clothes of the very best, For many and many a year!' "And go now," said the grandmother, Go down unto the lonesome glen, All down into the lonesome glen, Through moist rank grass, by trickling streams, And when she came to the lonesome glen, She kept beside the burn, And neither plucked the strawberry-flower Nor broke the lady-fern. And while she milked the mother-ewe Within this lonesome glen, She wished that little Amy Were strong and well again. And soon as she had thought this thought, She heard a coming sound, As if a thousand fairy-folk Were gathering all around. And then she heard a little voice, That spake aloud, "A human child "The lady-fern is all unbroke, "Give her a fairy cake! said one; “Grant her a wish!" said three : "The latest wish that she hath wished," Said all, "whate'er it be !" Kind Mabel heard the words they spake, Unto the good old grandmother Thus happened it to Mabel |