When Doris was a Mermaid 93

broke a fairy’s leg with a stone? Itisina
book.”

“You never told me,” said Doris, re-
proachfully. |

“Oh, it is not very much to tell. There
was once a farmer who had long wanted to
catch a fairy and make it tame. He thought
it would be a very nice pet, and lucky to
have about the house. Now, one night he
was coming home in the moonlight through
a very lonely lane, and he heard little voices
singing this song as they danced among
the daisies just inside the gate of one of his
own fields :

Join your hands till a ring ye make,
(Dance, O dance in the moonlight!)

Dawn will come if the ring ye break,
While ye dance in the moonlight.

Men will wake if the ring ye break,
(Fairies, dance in the moonlight! )

Haste ye, then, and your pleasure take,
Dancing here in the moonlight.

“He crept on quietly, and looked over the