YOURS WITH ALL MY HEART 



as much as to say, 'Fairy is the one who 

 did it!" 



Mamma took up the hats and saw they 

 were uninjured, but I expected to be pun- 

 ished. She held them down to me, as I 

 crept whimpering up the steps into the hall, 

 and said, in a low, serious voice, " Poor, poor 

 papa! he can't have any hats, his naughty 

 little Fairy spoils them all!' 



I crept away into my basket and hoped 

 she would forget it, but she called me out, 

 again and again, and held the hats to my 

 keen-scented nose, and said, 'Poor, poor 

 papa!' till I began to feel that I had done a 

 dreadful thing to the one I loved so well. 



I trembled and shook in my basket when 

 he came at noon, and called as usual, 'Are 

 you up there, mother?' 



Yes," she answered, "and I would like 

 you to come up. I have a dreadful story to 

 tell you!' she said, as he entered the room, 

 in such a sorrowful voice ; and again she took 

 down those terrible hats from the two bed- 

 posts, where she had hung them before my 

 eyes. I crept out of the basket to where 

 papa stood, and crouched between his feet, 

 and cried and lapped my little tongue out at 



45 



