merrimeg was asleep in her little bed, and merrimeg’s mother was asleep in her big bed.

it was late at night, and everybody in the village was asleep. all the houses were dark, and the stars were shining overhead.

merrimeg woke up, and listened. she thought she heard a sound as if someone were crying.

she got up out of bed in her white nightgown, and tiptoed over to her mother and looked at her. her mother was fast asleep, but she still heard the sound of crying.

she decided that it must be outside in the street, so she opened the front door and peeped out.

in the street before the door were three beautiful children, and one of them was crying.

[52]they were all of about the same size as merrimeg, and they were dressed in long dark blue gowns, fine as spider webs, which rippled around them in the cool air. they were barefoot and bareheaded. each one had long black hair streaming down to her waist, and a pair of great wide wings standing out straight from her shoulders, like the wings of an enormous butterfly, all blue and silver.

one of the children had her arms about the one who was crying. they all looked up at merrimeg as she opened the door.

“you’re merrimeg, aren’t you?” said the one who had her arms about the other.

merrimeg stepped out into the street under the stars.

“yes,” said she. “what is she crying about? are you lost?”

“you’d—better—tell her—who we are, pennie,” said the one who had been crying, choking back her sobs.

“we aren’t lost,” said the one who hadn’t yet spoken. “we’re looking for our star.”

[53]“we’ve lost it,” said the one who had been crying, breaking out into sobs again.

“don’t cry, winnie,” said the one who had her arms about her. “she’ll help us find it, i know she will.”

“why is she crying?” said merrimeg again.

“she’s winnie, and i’m florrie,” said the one who had just spoken, “and this one’s pennie. don’t you know who we are?”

“no,” said merrimeg.

“we’re the starlight fairies,” said florrie. “now do you know?”

“no,” said merrimeg.

“i thought everybody knew,” said florrie. “every evening at dark we fly along the sky up there and hang out the stars. haven’t you ever seen us?”

“no,” said merrimeg.

“i suppose they can’t see us from down here, and we’ve never been away from the stars before.”

“i wish we’d never come,” said winnie, crying again.

[54]“i’ll tell you,” said pennie. “to-night we were hanging out the stars, and winnie—poor winnie!”

“i didn’t mean to,” sobbed winnie. “i didn’t mean to!”

“what did she do?” said merrimeg.

“she dropped one of her stars,” said pennie.

“it’s gone!” sobbed winnie. “and i can’t go back without it!”

“it fell and fell and fell and fell,” said florrie, “and then we couldn’t see it any more. it dropped down here, somewhere near here, we’re sure of it.”

“do you see up there?” said pennie. “up there where there’s a wide dark space between the stars?” she pointed to the sky, directly overhead. there was a space there, about as big as a blanket, without any star.

“yes, i see,” said merrimeg.

“that’s where the star belongs,” said pennie.

“we’ll never find it!” said winnie, putting her face down on florrie’s shoulder.

“i’m sure we shall,” said florrie, “if merrimeg[55] will only help us. we don’t know anything about this dreadful earth place, but she knows.”

“will you help us?” said pennie.

“if i can,” said merrimeg.

“then come along,” said pennie.

“can’t i put on my clothes first?” said merrimeg.

“there’s no time,” said pennie. “suppose daylight should come before we find it? what would we do?”

“let’s go, then,” said florrie; and she moved away lightly down the street, drawing winnie along by the hand, their wings waving gently in the air.

“where shall we go?” said pennie.

a thought came into merrimeg’s mind. she would take them to the gnomes’ house, and the two brothers would surely tell them how to find the star.

“i’ll take you,” said she, pushing on ahead towards the woods beyond the village. she was used to going barefoot, and she didn’t mind the[56] rough ground. it was a warm night, and she soon forgot that she was only in her nightgown.

they went into the woods.

“it’s so gloomy,” said winnie, in a whisper. “i don’t like these strange earth places. i wish we were at home among the stars.”

“we’ll be home before morning, never fear,” said florrie.

they stopped beside the pool where merrimeg had once tried to wash the black from her face. the trees were wide apart here, and merrimeg, looking up, could see the bare spot in the sky directly overhead, where the lost star belonged.

“where are you taking us?” said pennie.

“i’m taking you to the gnomes’ house,” said merrimeg. “we’ll soon be there. it’s two gnomes who’ve been very good to me; i know where they live. they’re the ones to help us.”

“is one of them named malkin?” said florrie.

“and the other one nibby?” said pennie.

[57]“yes,” said merrimeg.

[58]

“look!” she cried

[59]“then it’s no use,” said pennie. “we’ve been there already.”

“they were asleep,” said florrie, “and we woke them up, and they didn’t like it a bit. they wouldn’t get up for any foolish old star,—that’s what they said. but they told us about you, and that’s how we came to hunt you up. but the horrid gnomes wouldn’t do a thing for us; they wouldn’t even get up.”

“they’re not horrid,” said merrimeg. “oh dear, i don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

she looked down sadly into the dark water of the pool, trying to think what to do next. she gave a little jump of surprise, and looked harder. far, far down, away down deep under the water of the pool,——

she saw a star.

“look!” she cried, and pointed her finger at it.

the starlight fairies leaned over, and looked down into the pool.

“that’s it!” cried florrie.

[60]“it’s my star!” cried winnie.

“it’s our lost star!” cried pennie. “dropped down from the sky to the bottom of this pool.”

“then,” said merrimeg, “you’d better go down and get it.”

“oh no! oh no! oh no!” cried the three fairies together.

“we mustn’t get our wings wet!” said pennie.

“we’d never be able to fly home if our wings got wet,” said winnie.

“but you have no wings,” said florrie to merrimeg.

“no, she has no wings,” said pennie.

“she shall go down for our star,” said winnie. “you will, won’t you?”

“the water’s deep and dark,” said merrimeg.

“but you have no wings,” said florrie.

“the water’s cold and gloomy,” said merrimeg.

“but you have no wings,” said pennie.

“i wonder if i could do it,” said merrimeg.

[61]“oh please!” cried winnie. “oh dearest merrimeg, please get my star.”

“i’ll see how deep it is,” said merrimeg, and she threw a stone into the middle of the pool. the water rippled away as the stone sank, and the star could not be seen any longer.

“oh!” cried winnie. “now you’ve sent my star away! it’s gone!”

but the water became quiet in a moment, and there was the star again, shining bright at the bottom of the pool.

at that instant, they heard a splash in the water, and a shrill voice, like the voice of an angry boy, cried out:

“who breaks my glass? who breaks my glass?”

“what can that be?” whispered merrimeg.

“i don’t know,” said florrie. “throw another stone, and perhaps we’ll hear it again.”

merrimeg tossed another stone into the pool, and when the ripples had died away they heard the same voice again. this time it said:

[62]“who strikes my children? who strikes my children?”

“throw another,” whispered pennie, and merrimeg cast in another stone.

this time there was a loud wail, and the voice cried:

“my children! my children! i’m coming! i’m coming!”

then there was a splash, and nothing more. they waited a long time, but they heard nothing more.

“i’m going to see,” said merrimeg. “i may have hurt somebody. i can see better from the end of that log.”

there was a dead log, the trunk of a fallen tree, lying out from the bank of the pool into the water, and merrimeg stepped onto it and getting down on her hands and knees crawled out to the end of it. it was slippery, and she had to hold on very carefully to keep from falling off into the water.

she leaned over as far as she could and looked down into the pool. she looked everywhere for[63] the star, but she couldn’t see it; there seemed to be some dark thing under the water between herself and the star.

“the star is gone!” she said to the others, in a whisper.

as she said this, a hand came up out of the water and seized her wrist and pulled her off the log. over she went into the pool, down, down, far down. the hand never once let go of her wrist. it pulled her down and down, faster and faster. at first she thought she was going to choke with the water, but in a moment she was all right again, only wet, very wet. and in another moment she was at the bottom, and the hand let go of her wrist. she stood up on her two feet on a floor of what looked like glass.

there was a pale light shining all about her through the water, and she saw that it came from the star, lying on the floor nearby. just over her head was a roof of glass, and it was badly broken in three or four places. around her were walls of glass. she was in a little house of glass, with a broken roof, and full of water.

[64]a hand took hold suddenly of her arm, and she was dragged across the floor in a great hurry, by the creature who had pulled her down from the log. it was a sprite; a water sprite, whose head just reached to her shoulder; full-grown, evidently, in spite of being so small; with pointed ears, and no hair on his head, and long green water grass trailing around him.

he dragged merrimeg straight to the star, and picked it up by a kind of sling that it was meant to hang by. it flashed and glittered as he snatched it up.

he pointed to the floor, and merrimeg saw, lying there side by side, three tiny sprites, babies, no bigger than kittens, and exactly like the grown one who was holding her arm. they looked as if they were asleep, but on the forehead of each one was a black and blue bruise, and merrimeg knew that she must have hurt them with her stones, as well as broken the glass of their little home.

their father, if it was their father, motioned to her to pick them up. she gathered them up[65] in her arms, and the sprite, carrying the star in one hand, seized her hair with the other hand and sprang up towards the holes in the broken glass roof; and in another instant she was being dragged upward through the water as fast as she had been pulled down.

upward through the water ...

she almost dropped the little mites she was holding in her arms, but she hugged them tighter, and when they came to the surface of the pool she was holding them safe in her arms.

they came out dripping on the bank of the pool, and there were the three starlight fairies.

“oh!” cried winnie. “she’s brought my star!”

the water sprite dragged merrimeg onto the dry grass, and took the three babies from her arms and laid them down on the grass.

“now! now! now!” he cried. it was plain that he was very angry. he was trembling all over. “what are you going to do about it? look what you’ve done.”

“why,” said merrimeg, “why——”

[66]“first comes this horrible star and breaks in the roof of my house and lets in all the water! and then—oh you wicked creatures!—you throw down your ’bom’nable stones and break my roof all to pieces and kill my children—my poor children—look at ’em—look at ’em, will you?—look at those bumps on their foreheads—oh my poor children—you ’bom’nable creatures, you! you perfectly awful wicked ’bom’nable——”

“oh!” said florrie. “it’s too bad. i’m so sorry.”

“we didn’t mean to do any harm,” said pennie.

“and after he was so kind as to bring our star back to us, too,” said winnie.

“is this your star?” cried out the water sprite.

“yes, yes! it’s mine!” said winnie.

“then you’ll never get it! you shan’t have it!” cried the water sprite, angrier than ever. “you’ll see what i’m going to do with it! you’ll never get it again! ah! there she goes!”

he swung the star by the sling in his hand,[67] and gave it a great fling, and away it flew over the tree tops, in a beautiful bright curve, higher and higher, and then lower and lower.

but he was greatly mistaken if he thought he could get rid of the star in any such way as that. quick as a flash all three of the starlight fairies were in the air, and off like three arrows over the tree tops after the star. before merrimeg knew what was happening they were out of sight, and the star was gone.

the water sprite was so astonished that he forgot he was angry.

“who are they?” he said, in a kind of whisper.

“they’re the starlight fairies,” said merrimeg. “they hang out the stars each night, and to-night they dropped that star by accident, and it fell into your pool. if they don’t get it back they can’t go home.”

“but they killed my children and——”

at that moment the lost star appeared over the tree tops, coming on towards them in a streak of white light, and in another moment the three[68] starlight fairies stood on the ground, and winnie was swinging the star in her hand.

“oh! oh!” she said, and began to laugh and cry at the same time. she couldn’t say another word, for joy.

“we’ve got it!” cried florrie. “we can go home now!”

“but what about these poor babies?” said merrimeg. “can’t we do anything for them?”

the three fairies knelt around the three tiny bodies on the ground, and looked closely at their foreheads.

“why,” said pennie, “it’s nothing but a bruise!”

“so it is,” said winnie and florrie together.

“is that all?” said merrimeg.

“is that all?” said the water sprite, looking very helpless and pitiful.

“yaa! yaa!” came a little piping cry from the grass, and the water sprite dropped to the ground beside the babies.

“he’s crying!” sang out the water sprite. “his eyes are open!”

[69]another little cry and another came from the grass, and the water sprite sang out again:

“they’re all crying! they’re all coming to! they’re all right! hurrah!”

he picked up the three babies and bundled them in his arms, and without another word gave a leap into the water and splash! went down and out of sight, babies and all.

florrie laughed, winnie laughed, and pennie and merrimeg laughed too.

“but i’m sorry his house is ruined,” said merrimeg.

“oh, he’ll mend it in no time,” said florrie. “but see, merrimeg, you’re all wet!”

[70]“goodness!” said merrimeg. “i’d forgotten all about it.”

“stand here,” said florrie, and she and the other two fairies placed merrimeg in the middle and turned their backs to her.

their wings began to flutter gently, and then began to move faster and faster, making a strong breeze which blew all over merrimeg. fanned in this way by the great butterfly wings, she was soon dry.

“good-by, merrimeg,” said florrie.

“good-by, dear merrimeg,” said each of the others.

“thank you for my star,” said winnie. “you must think of us whenever you look up at the stars.”

“indeed i will,” said merrimeg.

the starlight fairies stood on tiptoe for a moment, and fluttered their wings; and then they rose quietly in the air, and flew straight up. when they were above the tree tops, they began to circle round and round, going higher and higher; far, far up through the night they went[71] on circling; and long after merrimeg could see them no more, she could see the star, bright as a diamond, go circling up and up....

she ran away home, and crept in quietly at the front door, and lay down in her bed and snuggled under the covers. her mother was still asleep. she must have gone to sleep herself presently; she woke up and thought of the lost star, and remembered that she had not waited to see if it was in its place. she got out of bed and tiptoed to the window, and putting her head out looked up.

a star was sparkling just overhead, where there had been none before. the star was in its place.

“i’m glad of that,” she said out loud.

“what did you say?” said her mother, waking up.

“i was only saying—only saying——”

“never mind what you were saying. go back to bed, and go to sleep. you’ll catch your death of cold.”

“yes, mother,” said merrimeg.