THE FOREST FAIRY.

OME people think that there are no Fairies nowadays.
There are so many large towns full of dust and smoke, and
so many railroads, on which trains run snorting and screaming
through the pretty, lovely country places, where the Fairies
used to be found, that a great many people fancy these things
have quite driven the Fairies out, but, indeed, this is not the
case. It isnot so easy to get rid of the Fairies. Even in the
dark, dull towns, there are gleams of Fairy brightness to be
seen sometimes, and scenes of Fairyland float before the eyes
of many a child whose heart is light and whose spirit is pure ;
and the Fairies come in dreams, and take it away to dance
and play with them for a while, and forget the toils and hard-
ships of its every-day life. Ay, and even when the railway train
whistles and screeches through the woods where the Fairies
used to hold their midnight meetings, and over the soft
meadows where they danced so often in the Fairy-ring, it can-
-not drive the little Elves away for good and all. They stop
their ears sometimes, and go further away from the harsh,
screeching sound, but they do not quite desert the place, and
they never will desert it, as long as there are warm and tender
hearts to love their kind ways, and eager little ears to hear all
thé pretty stories of which Fairyland is full, and which help to
make it so pleasant. -
But there was no big town and no railroad in that part of
Switzerland where dwelt the Fairy of whom I am going to tell
you. There was a large wood, full of very tall trees, so thick

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