blessings, and the prayer that you may use the gift aright, is the power of wishing one wish. I am your loving Ancestress."

Sweetbriar was much touched with this letter, and the fairy too was silent for a moment. Presently she spoke.

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Sweetbriar," said she, "the wish is yours. It was given to your great-great-grandmother, and she left it for you. I have no control over it, and you may wish when, how, and what you please.

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Perhaps, however, you may see fit to indulge an old woman, who has seen something of this world's joys and cares, by listening patiently to a few words of friendly caution?"

Sweetbriar only smiled.

But there were tears,

too, in her eyes, and the old fairy, well pleased with this silent answer, spoke in a clear sweet voice as follows:

"Recollect that if you wish for riches, you may, perhaps, live to remember, with bitter regret, that there are some blessings that money cannot buy, and that your wish might have given you!

"Nor should you wish for power and dominion. You would assuredly live to know how limited the very greatest of all earthly power is, when the whole world might be bowed down before you in awe of your very glance, and you be powerless to grant yourself the one secret desire of your heart!

"Do not wish for health, since by cleanliness and

sobriety you will easily be enabled to preserve the good health you now enjoy. Do not wish for happiness perpetual, since, in the first place, your happiness will greatly depend upon yourself, and, in the second, if you never know care or sorrow yourself, you may run a grave risk of becoming indifferent to the care and sorrow of others.

"Nor should you ask for a long life, lest you pay for your presumption in growing weary of your days long before they are all counted.

"And do not wish to be much loved, since that is the only wish that cannot be granted. Love is Master, and yields to no coercion. You will be loved, little dame, as you love others; and if their measure be not so great as yours, theirs will be the loss!

"Do not either wish hastily or at random, and, above all, do not wish at all, just yet. Remember that your wishes of to-morrow will not be as your wishes of to-day; and there is but one wish and many morrows!

"But," cried Dame Sweetbriar, in dismay, "you have left me nothing to wish for!"

The fairy smiled.

"Dear child, how much! You have so good a heart that I tremble for you to think how easily it may lead you to wish uselessly and foolishly. The very first little baby you come across with a swollen finger tied up in a rag, and the tears streaming

down its face, will make you want to wish the finger well again!

"But you must recollect that a soft hot bread poultice is a fine thing for a swollen finger, and a good game of romps a capital remedy for the doldrum dumps, and you will not thus waste your gift on such trifles.

"One thing more.

Do not speak of this fairy gift to anyone: it would break the spell, and you might not obtain what you ask for. When you wish, do it this way: count a hundred backwards, aloud, then name your wish aloud; for this way you will run no risk of wishing with your lips without the full consent of your reason or your heart. And now farewell."

As the old lady said that she slipped from the table, gave the little yellow paper one tap and Sweetbriar another.

"This is the way fairies take their leave," said she, and with that she grew larger and larger still, until the whole of the room seemed filled with cream-coloured and flower-embroidered damask. "Farewell!" said she, nodding kindly, when her head had reached the ceiling, and must assuredly go straight through it if she grew any taller.

There was a flash of blinding light, and a noise that sounded like the clanging to of a brass door. Sweetbriar, much awed, fell on her knees, and hid her face in her hands. The whole room