“Well, what happened at last?” said Eddy.
“At last, one lovely summer morn, when all the birds were singing, and the flowers smelling sweet, and the trees waving softly in the air, in the beautiful garden of a beautiful palace the two beautiful children found themselves again, with their arms closely twined around each other!”
“Had they not grown in all that time?” inquired Lily.
“They had grown wiser, dear; but the years that had passed seemed to them like nothing but a dream; and a dream they would have thought them, so exactly did everything appear as it had done before, had not the same silvery voice come from the centre of a rose, and the same fairy form appeared with spangled wings, and tiny glittering wand!
“‘Let not the lessons which you have learned be forgotten!’ she cried. ‘Follow the same path of usefulness now with your wills as you have lately been doing without them. Let not lifeless brass and steel do more than beings with reason, judgment, and affection. Let the heart still point to the pole-star of duty in every danger and trouble; and your home be cheered by the quiet virtues which adorn the peace-maker, the comforter, the friend!’ Then bursting into song as she vanished into air, the fairy’s musical voice was heard:—
‘On life’s ocean wide
Your fellow-creatures guide,
And point to a shore beyond the stormy tide!
What is marred, make right;
What is severed, unite;