"The sun's golden kisses," said the fairy.
Her loving expression warmed Rowena's heart.
"Are you the Princess Polawee?" she asked in awe.
"No," replied the fairy, "my name is Lily-bud; but I know all about the Princess Polawee and I thought perhaps you were crying because her river is so changed from the crystal stream where she brought children to look at their unhappy faces, to make them laugh. The princess would scarcely recognize her river if she saw it now."
"What changed it?" asked Rowena.
"People who didn't love it," replied Lily-bud. "When the village grew up here the people didn't like the river. It once rose and overflowed its banks and washed away their seeds and they began to treat it like an enemy. They threw sticks and stones and mud at it."
"As they do at me," said Rowena. "I know that in the old days unhappy children came and looked into the river until they grew glad, so I come every day and stand here and look into the water, but all I see is the girl they all make fun of. I never thought before of pitying the river," she added. "I'm sorry now that I ever threw mud and stones and sticks into it, as I have done many times."
"Come with me," said Lily-bud, holding out her hand; "I will take you to the land where there are only loving thoughts."
"No," replied Rowena, the sullen look settling over her face again, "I will stay and look into the river, for there I shall see the truth. I see why the others despise me, and I despise them too," she added bitterly.
"But you are not seeing the truth," said Lily-bud. "If you had come in Polawee's day you would have seen a true picture of little Rowena, but in this poor, muddy stream, and bent over as you are when you look into it, there is no truth reflected back."