"All right," said one of the biggest girls, "I'll join the Polawee Club."
"And I, and I, and I," chimed in others. And to make a long story short Rowena did get them all interested at last, and the fathers and mothers were helped to keep the new rules about ashes and tin cans because their children were loving and helping the river.
Sometimes when the Polawee Club were tired and stopped to rest, they would sit down on the grass and Rowena would tell them stories.
The one they liked best of all was that of a little girl who was sore-hearted and lonely. A fairy named Lily-bud appeared to her one day and took her to the fairies' orchard where the little girl found she could sing, and the other children there were all glad she had come.
She sat on the grass with a boy in shining white clothes and ate delicious pears with him, and he told her of Love, greater than all the fairies. He told her that if in all her troubles she would look up and to the right she would be helped. He said that the Princess Polawee was using Love when she made crying children look into her river; and the little girl listened to it all and was so comforted that she tried what he had told her to do and found that he told the truth.
And while the children planted their flowers and the boys made their benches and Rowena told her stories, the Polawee was washing itself clean.
Love continued to watch over it and at last the weeping willow saw the lovely grace of its branches reflected clearly in the water. The wisps of white cloud and the birds flying over saw themselves in its depths; and whenever a child in that village had a little heartache and wept a little weep, one of the Polawees would lead her to the river and make her laugh at the funny face looking up from the crystal mirror.
But Rowena remembered the words of the boy in shining white:
"Yes, but she had her arms around them while they looked. It was her love that helped them."