“Oh, I meant eight o’clock to-morrow morning,” said the old fisherman. “Get up then, and look.”
So the children said good-night to the old fisherman, and they were just trotting off to bed, when Mary exclaimed:
“Goodness gracious! We forgot to fold the hair ribbon tight. We must do that, or there won’t be any trick.”
So she and her brothers folded the hair ribbon as tightly as they could, and placed it far away under the big chair in the parlor, where it was out of sight, just as the fisherman said must be done. Then the Trippertrot children were soon fast asleep, and they could hardly wait until eight o’clock the next morning to come, so they could see how the trick worked.
“Where is the old fisherman?” cried Mary, as soon as she could run downstairs when it was daylight again.
“Oh, he had to go away,” said her mamma.
“Then let’s go look, and see if the hair ribbon has changed into a fairy,” suggested Tommy.
“No; Suzette says it isn’t eight o’clock yet,” objected Johnny. So they ate their breakfast, and got ready for school, and then they sat down and watched the clock until the hands should get to the place where it would be time to look behind the parlor chair, to see what would be hiding there.
“Now it’s time!” suddenly cried Mary, and she jumped up, and ran into the parlor, followed by her brothers, just as soon as the clock began to strike. The three children got there about the same time, but Mary was the first to look under the chair. No sooner had she done so than she screamed:
“Oh, my! Oh, dear! Look there!”