114 The Catskill Fazrtes.

THE FAIRY REGATTA.

“J serieve that you are all aware of my place of residence.
I live in the Berkshire Hills, behind a blackberry-bush; and
you may always leave word if I am wanted with the grasshop-
pers near by, for my trade as pedler naturally keeps me ab-
sent a good deal.

“Well, I thought I knew the country pretty well, but ji
summer I made a discovery. To tell the truth, I had been
teasing a blackbird, and I told him if I could discover his nest
I would frighten his wife into fits. This was only talk, as my
heart is in the right place, after all; still I must peer about
in search of the nest, to torment the bird.

“ Suddenly I found myself at the mouth of a cave—that was
my discovery. I never saw the cave before. The entrance
was so high and wide that it seemed as if a ship might pass in
without touching the lofty arches. I walked in and soon found
that the cavern narrowed more and more; at the farther ex-
tremity there was a mere crack, through which I siipped, and
groped my way onward. It was very dark until a turn in the
passage showed a ray of light in the distance, and I also heard
the murmur of water trickling along a rocky bed beside me.
The light increasing, I soon found myself on the brink of a
small lake, and on the margin where the rushes grew was

moored a little boat of silver, with two oars just large enough