120 FOREST FANCIES 



nymph even thought of her tree, he turned 

 and kissed her. 



** Why have you never come to play with me 

 before?'' 



She sprang up, laughing. ^Tome, let us 

 play now, and make up for lost time." 



So they played all day long in the forest; 

 and she showed him in which trees his top and 

 hoop^ his bat and sled, his box and basket grew. 



** Every day," said she, *'you will want 

 many, many things that grow in trees." 



And true enough, he found that house and 

 hearth-fire, the fence around the clearing, the 

 chair and the table, his mother's spindle and 

 the oxen yoke, the wagon for the road and the 

 bridge and the boat for the river, all had grown 

 in the forest. 



And then he became more and more inter- 

 ested in the things that came from the forest, 

 until he almost forgot the forest itself. As for 

 the little wood-nymph, he began to doubt 

 Whether she really did live within the oak — 

 or did she not mean some log-cabin on the 

 mountain ? 



