“So they are,” said Teddy, “but I like her stories best when I’m all well, and I like your stories best when I’m sick. Besides I only hear her stories and I see yours.”
The fairy smiled. “Well, then, which square will you choose this time?” she said.
“I think I would like that one,” said Teddy, pointing to a square of watered ribbon that shaded from white to a sea-green.
“That’s rather a long story,” said the fairy, doubtfully.
“Oh, please show it!” begged Teddy.
“Well,” said the Fairy, “fix your eyes on it while I count.”
Then she began and he heard her voice going on and on. “FORTY-NINE!” she cried.
Teddy was floating on a block of ice across the wide, green Polar sea. The Counterpane Fairy was with him, and all around were great fields of ice and floating white bergs. The air was very still and cold, but Teddy liked it all the better for that, for now he was an ice-fairy. He was dressed from head to foot in a suit that shone and sparkled like woven frost, and in his belt was a knife as shining as an icicle. Something kept bobbing and tickling his forehead, and when he caught hold of it he found it was the end of the long cap he wore.
As they drifted along, sometimes they saw a walrus with long tusks lying on the ice, or a soft-eyed seal. Once some strange little beings that looked like dwarfs, with goggle eyes and straggling black hair, caught hold of the block of ice, and lifting themselves out of the water made faces at Teddy, but the moment they saw the Counterpane Fairy their looked changed to one of fear, and with a queer gurgling cry they dropped from the ice and were gone.