IT was summer-time again in Cornertown, and fair as is every season in that home of my heart, the little village which shall for ever remain unknown, summer-time I think is the fairest of all. How

should it be otherwise, indeed, when the air is fragrant with flowers and haymaking, and musical with blithe bird-voices, amongst which I reckon the children, who are the blithest birds of any; at least they were in Cornertown, for their little hearts were never oppressed, as they too often are in the great world, with the cares of coming grown-up-hood, to say nothing of present miseries in the shape of tunics and sashes. It was the fashion in Cornertown for even the grown-up lads and lasses to carry children's hearts about with them, for you see there was love and work enough for all, old and young, married and single in that fairy-gifted village; so who could be sad?

And yet on the banks of the river which ran at the foot of the hill a dreamy, spirit-haunted stream, where the trees grew down to the water's edge, and the dragon-flies skimmed all day over the surface, there sat a silent, nay, a melancholy group. They were all young, all fair and fresh, and should have been singing and laughing with the rest in the haymaking fields, instead of sitting at the riverside brooding over their woes. They were ten girls, all

sisters, and a very remarkable set of sisters, for they were born in five sets of twins, with exactly a year between each pair, so they all had the same birthday. There they were, sitting in silence, each pair of twins close together holding the other's hand, as plump and rosy, as fair and hopeful a bunch of daughters as any mother could desire. But unfortunately, even in Cornertown, the weight of such a blessing as ten daughters is thought a little heavy to bear. And now, what was their sorrow?

"It wasn't so bad when we were all young," said the eldest pair of twins with a heavy sigh; “we never thought about it."

"And we never would have thought about it now," said the second, "if the three old maids that live in Wood Street hadn't put it into our heads."

"They were quite right," said the third despondently; "it is hard to be so many women in a family. What can they all do?"

It is a hard lot to be a woman at all," said the fourth; "for if they are single-" Words failed the fourth pair of twins at this point, and the sentence ended in a sigh.

"And if they are married," chimed in the fifth pair, "they are liable to have ten daughters, perhaps twenty, all born in sets of twins."

The eldest pair of twins shook their heads sorrowfully, a gesture which was immediately imitated by all the rest; and then there was silence amongst them, whilst the breeze swept through the trees, the insects hummed in the grass, the river murmured over its mossy stones, and those ten girls sat mutely, mourning over their fair womanhood.

'Well; have you quite made up your minds about it?"

The voice, a rather peremptory, but by no means unkindly one, came from an old woman in a red cloak, who is as well known to you and me as she was to all Cornertown, being its friend and benefactress, the Fairy Rubinetta. She was sitting by the stream, peeling rushes, and looking very much at home, and decidedly benevolent, though slightly satirical withal.

'Well," said she; "have you quite made up your minds that women are a mistake?"

The girls were rather taken aback, and did not

answer at first, until the eldest pair of twins took courage, and said boldly,—

"Yes, there are too many women in the world to be happy, and at all events there are too many in our family, everybody says so. Why, what are we all to do with ourselves, I should like to know?"

"Some of you may marry," said the Fairy Rubinetta.

"And some of us may not," exclaimed three pairs of twins all at once.

"And whether or no," said the fifth pair, which seemed to be the most despondent of the set, "we shall only be women after all, and women are born to be miserable."

"Ah," said the Fairy Rubinetta composedly; "if you lived under the Rainbow there would be none of this talk about women- there the women are queens; and it's the men who might complain, only they don't; they are too happy to submit to the women."

"And where is that?" asked all the twins eagerly. "Look there," said the fairy, pointing to the horizon. There had been a light shower a few minutes before, and now there was a Rainbow, its