Janet, adding, earnestly, "I do wish you would let us take you there to live, we want another little sister so much. There is an old pear-tree in the corner of our yard, by the stone wall, and I know there isn't any dryad living in it, for when I stand on tiptoe on the wall, I can just make out to look down in a deep hole there is in the trunk, and it is all dark and empty. I dropped some little stones in there one day. Can't you come and live in that tree? We will go there and play with you every day." "Oh! do, do, DO!" entreated Prue, throwing her arms about the little dryad, and kissing her. "I wonder if I dare?" said the dryad, thoughtfully. "Oh! please, please do!" chorused the Kanter girls. The macaw, who had mounted a gray rock close by, flapped his wings and screamed warningly. "I believe I will go," said Sylvie, "if only to get away from the macaw. I will go and live in your pear-tree in your far-away country. But how can you take me there?" "I'll call "In our chariot," said Janet, eagerly. the birds, Prue, and you gather up the cocoanuts in your apron, and we'll go right straight off!" In a few moments more, they were all three seated in the chariot, and gently rising in the air. Sylvie looked down on the beautiful island which had always been her home. "Good-by, sisters! good-by, macaw!" she said, and there was just a little sadness in her voice, but still she wanted to go. The Tenant A' XIII "I would with such an one confer, To know what strange things chanced to her." -Philip Bourke Marston. WAY, over sea and land, over mountains and valleys, onward the chariot sped, and the sun was not yet setting when it came softly to the ground, right among the hollyhocks in the yard by the little brown cottage. Sylvie was pale and trembling as she stepped out. "The pear-tree! quick, quick!" she whispered, "I am so frightened here." The Kanter girls hurried her to the corner by the stone wall, and the instant she reached the tree she sprang lightly up to the opening in the trunk, and immediately disappeared within. The Kanter girls waited a little while, and then called her anxiously. "Sylvie! Sylvie !" Presently her face appeared at the opening, and she looked more at her ease. 'It is very nice in here," she said, "though I think no one has lived here for a long, long time. But I shall get used to it pretty soon, and get things settled." "Mamma is calling us in," said Janet, "so we must go now. But we will come to-morrow morning, and bring you things and play. Goodnight!" "Good-night!" replied Sylvie, drawing her pretty head in. "Are there any bed-clothes?" asked Prue, lingering. 66 'Everything I want," answered the little dryad, far down in the trunk. When the Kanter girls went to bed that night, the last thing they said, before going to sleep, was, “Oh! how very nice it is to have a little dryad of our own!" When they awoke in the morning, their first thought was of Sylvie, but their mother wanted 4 their help about getting breakfast and clearing it away, so that it was not until the dew was nearly dried off the grass that they made their way to the old, hollow pear-tree, carrying in their hands a doll, a picture-book, a cup of milk, and a piece of cake. "Sylvie! Sylvie !" they called, and instantly her bright little face appeared at the opening. "Come down and play," they cried. "See, we have brought things for you." The little dryad laughed. "I don't care for things like that," she said, "but I should like to run about over the grass, and I should like to see your house." She sprang down, bringing in her hand a string of beads, which Janet hailed with delight. "I lost them ever so long ago," she said, "but I did not know they were down in the pear-tree. I must have dropped them there." Prue now pointed out the window of the room where she and Janet slept. A wistaria vine had grown up to the very sill. "Come into the house," said Prue, "and we will take you upstairs.” "Those are my stairs on the outside," said Sylvie, quickly; "I am afraid to go up any way but my own." |