When the magic ring was placed around a lovely mossy spot they began to set the table for the feast.
"We'll give them cake and some ripe strawberries," said Betty.
"But fairies eat dewdrops served on rose leaves," said Peggy.
"When they come to a party given by little girls, they eat just what little girls give them. You'll see," said Betty. So the moss table was set with leaf plates, and on each plate were a ripe, red strawberry and a fairy-size piece of cake. When everything was ready the children danced around the magic ring three times to make it more magic. Then they packed their baskets and went home, feeling very tired but very happy and much pleased with the picnic.
That night Betty could not go to sleep for a long, long time. She lay in bed and watched the moonbeams.
"I wonder," she thought, "whether the fairies will come. I wonder whether the man in the moon is looking down at them now. I wonder"—and then she went to sleep and dreamed that she was dancing around and around the magic ring with the man in the moon. All around them fairies were sliding up and down from the tree tops to the mossy ground, on silver moonbeams.
The next day the children went to the woods to see whether the fairies had been there. Betty reached the spot first and cried out joyfully, "They came! They came!" And sure enough, the leaf plates were empty. Every strawberry, every crumb of cake, was gone.
"The fairies really came," said the other little girls as they stood around the magic ring.
"Tweet-tweet-tweet," sang a bird in a tree top; "tweet-tweet-tweet."
He cocked his little head and looked very wise and knowing. But "Tweet—tweet—tweet; tweet—tweet-tweet" was all he said.