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away. I am sorry for it, for with his lame wing he will be sure to get into trouble.'

Amy burst forth again into ecstatic song; if she could only make her sister understand who she was. She flew first upon Clara's hand, then upon her head, and finally upon her shoulder, finishing by putting her beak caressingly between her sister's lips, as she bent over her.

'You sweet little thing,' said Clara, delightedly, gently stroking its head. 'Mother, dear, do let me keep it!'

'Most willingly, dear, if no owner claims it; but I am afraid there is no chance of that. So tame and so beautiful a bird is certain to be a valued one.'

After a few days no one being found to claim it, Amy took her place as Clara's pet, Sylphina asserting she was sure it had come direct from Fairy-land; and Hubert declaring that he was certain it was the poor old butterfly turned into a bird, and that it ought to be called Beauty.

'And so it shall,' said Clara. It deserves the name for its own sake, as well as being a remembrance of our lost pet.'

CHAPTER VII.

THE FAIRY SCHOOL.

OR some time Amy was very happy in her new life. Petted and caressed by all, she had liberty to go wherever she liked. She

would stand upon the children's heads as they ran up and down stairs, or sat at their lessons; she was welcomed at all their meals, and allowed to help herself to anything she fancied.

Often in the early morning she would take short flights into the garden, and have a chat with the blackbirds and thrushes, and go with them on hunting excursions for grubs and worms.

Once they wanted her to join a grand butterfly hunt, but this she steadily refused, and she was very glad that she had, when she saw them bring in the dead body of Apollo as one of their victims. It was sadly mangled, but she contrived, when they were dividing the spoil, to secure his head and one of his

wings, which she carried away and buried under a myrtle. She could not forget that he had been kind to her when she was very lonely.

The only drawback to her happiness was Sylphina's still continuing her wild mischievous pranks.

This led to constant quarrels between them, till at last, one day when Sylphina had been more than usually troublesome, Amy got so provoked, that she flew at her, and gave her several hard pecks upon her cheek, screaming at the same time, 'You nasty thing, I hate you! I hate you!' From that day she would never go near her, nor even take a piece of sugar from her hand.

This quarrel with Sylphina made her feel lonely and unhappy. She had no one to talk to who could understand her, and she began to get very tired of having nothing to do but sing all day. She envied the thrushes when she saw them so busy and happy building their nests. She began to build one herself, but, alas! she found it was no pleasure doing it alone.

'I wish I had not quarrelled with Sylphina,' she said to herself one day, as she sat mournfully upon the edge of her unfinished nest. 'I wonder whether she would make it up. Perhaps she would if I begged her pardon, and I ought, for it was wrong in me to peck her. Though she is mischievous and very provoking, she has never been unkind to me, and when I

pecked her, she only laughed, and called me a little fool!'

Full of these thoughts, she kept awake one night, and watched for the time when Sylphina should go out to join her fairy companions.

Just as the clock struck twelve, and when Beauty was so sleepy she could hardly keep herself from putting her head under her wing, she was roused by a gleam of light, and looking towards the window, she saw a small airy figure dressed in a cloak of silvery mist stop for a moment and blow gently into the room. It was Zephyr, who had promised to call Sylphina as he went his midnight round.

The next instant Sylphina appeared. Beauty called softly to her,

'Stop a moment, Sylphina, I have been keeping awake on purpose to speak to you.'

'Well,' said Sylphina, laughing, 'it's a singular proceeding on your part to speak to me at all. I thought you had determined never to come near me again. I suppose that is why you have chosen such a singular time. But make haste with whatever you've got to say, for I am going to school, and I must not be late." Going to school!' exclaimed Beauty in a tone of astonishment. 'What can you go to school for? You are so clever.'

Is that what you stayed awake to ask me?' said Sylphina dryly,