THROUGH LIBRARY WINDOWS 93 



prey, the whippoorwill back yonder is toning 

 down his voice and giving his song as if he had 

 no heart in it, the "Arno" flows so gently on 

 and leaps its miniature cascade, bubbling its 

 mirth in subdued tones, occasionally some robin 

 or sparrow will utter a sweet note as if dream- 

 ing of his last vesper joys. Oh! this silence, 

 what inspiration it has, our hearts grow glad 

 and grateful. It is just the kind of an evening 

 that the fairies delight to revel in, so say all the 

 bright stories and legends. Somehow we are 

 in the fairy mood and susceptible to the impres- 

 sion. What! So you believe in fairies? 

 Those impossible little elfs? Creations of 

 imagination and written about to please the 

 child-mind and to brighten a merry page ? Be- 

 lieve in them? Why not? 



"There are more things in heaven and earth, 

 Horatio, 

 Than are dreamed of in our philosophy." 



Surely there is no heterodoxy in such a be- 

 lief. We fear no ostracism, or loss of social 

 caste, and if it were so, we would be with the 

 children, and they form the best part of society 

 in this world ! The fairy-idea is as old as the 

 race; it belongs to childhood, it is childhood's 

 beautiful and imaginative picturings of possi- 



