"Oh no, I am very human, dear Phil, as you will find out. And now I must go look after my strawberry beds. Good-by."
"Good-by," said Phil, waving her a kiss. "Only think, Lisa, we will actually see strawberries growing! It is quite fairy-land for me."
After that he was carried down to the easy-chair on the piazza, where he could see the lawn sloping down to the lake, and watch the birds lighting on the rim of a vase full of daisies and running vines. He could see that the cottage was low and broad, and painted in two shades of brown; that there were arbors covered with grapevines on one side, and on the other he knew there were flower beds and fruit trees, for every once in a while Miss Rachel was to be seen emerging from there in a broad straw flat, and with buckskin gloves, trailing long bits of string or boughs of green stuff, with scissors and trowel and watering-can.
Lisa had her work-basket, and with deft fingers and a little under-tone of psalmody was fashioning a pretty summer garment. Then Miss Rachel came and tossed a basketful of early roses and syringa down beside Phil, and put a little table beside him, with some slender glass vases and a pitcher of water, and asked him to arrange the flowers for her. This he was glad to do, and made the bunches up as prettily as his nice taste suggested. But he was really wearied with great happiness. It was all so new, so charming, every sense was so satisfied, that at last he closed his eyes and slept.
It seemed to him only a little while, but when he opened his eyes again, Lisa was beside him with his dinner; and after dinner he slept again, and when he wakened the lawn was in shadow, and the sun low in the sky, and the birds were twittering and seeking their nests, and Miss Rachel was telling Joe to put cushions in the boat, the Flyaway; and presently Phil found himself floating gently on the lovely water of the lake, and the cottage and lawn and arbors were looking like a pretty bit of landscape he had seen in books.
He dipped his fingers in the clear water, and looked down at the pebbly bottom, and listened to the even dip of the oars, as old Joe rowed farther out from shore.
"It must be fairy-land," thought Phil, but he said nothing; he was too happy to talk. And so the day ended, the first day in the country.