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Sammie and Susie Littletail

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<h2> XXVII </h2> <h3> SAMMIE AND THE GREEN FAIRY </h3> When Susie told her brother Sammie about what happened to her in the woods, when she saw the blue fairy, the little rabbit boy remarked: "Aw, I guess you fell asleep and dreamed that, Susie." for that's the way with brothers sometimes. I once had a brother, and he—but there, I'll tell you about him some other time. "No," answered Susie, "I didn't dream it. Why, here's my ring to prove it," and she held out the one with the blue stone in it. "I guess you found that in the woods, where you lost it," went on Sammie. "I don't believe in fairies at all." "But didn't one cure Uncle Wiggily's rheumatism?" "Aw, well, I guess that would have gotten better anyhow." "It wouldn't, so there!" exclaimed Susie. "I just hope you see a fairy some day, and I hope they don't treat you as kind as the one treated me, even if the horses did run away and disappear." But of course Susie didn't really want anything bad to happen to her brother. But you just wait and see what did happen. Oh, it was something very, very strange, yes, indeed, and I'm not fooling a bit; no, indeed. I wouldn't make it out anything different than what it really was, not for a penny and a half. Well, it happened about a week later. Sammie was coming home from a ball game, which he had played with Johnnie and Billie Bushytail (of whom I will tell you later), and some others of his chums, and he was in a deep, dark part of the wood, when suddenly he heard a crashing in the bushes. "Pooh!" exclaimed Sammie. "I s'pose that's one of them fairies. I'm not going to notice her," and with that he tossed his baseball up in the air, careless like, to show that he didn't mind. But he was a bit nervous, all the same, and his hand slipped and his best ball went right down in a deep, dark, muddy puddle of water. Then Sammie felt pretty bad, I tell you, and he was going to get a stick to fish the ball out, when he heard the crashing in the bushes again, and what should appear but—no, not a fairy, but bad, ugly fox. "Ah!" exclaimed the fox, looking at Sammie, and smacking his lips, "I've been waiting for you for some time." "Yes?" asked the little boy rabbit, and he tried to see a way to run past that fox, only there wasn't any. "Yes, really," went on the fox. "Have you had your supper?" "No," replied Sammie, "I haven't." "Neither have I," continued the fox, "but I'm going to have it pretty soon, in fact, almost immediately," which you children know means right away. "I'm going to eat directly," went on that bad fox, and he smacked his lips again and looked at Sammie, as if he was going to eat him up, for that's really what he meant when he said he was going to have supper. Oh, how frightened Sammie was. He began to tremble, and he wished he'd started for home earlier. Then the fox crouched down and was just going to jump on that little boy rabbit, when something happened. Right up from that puddle of water, where Sammie had lost his ball, sprang a little man in green. He was green all over, like Bully, the frog, but the funny part of it was that he wasn't wet a bit, even though he came up out of the water. "Ha! What have we here?" he cried out, just like that. "If—if you please, sir," began Sammie. "It's my supper time!" cried the fox, interrupting, which was not very polite on his part. "It's my supper time, and I'm hungry." "I don't see anything to eat," spoke the little green man. "Nothing at all," and he looked all around. "If—if you please, kind sir," went on Sammie, "I think he intends to eat me." "What! What!" cried the little green man. "The very idea! The very idonical idea! We'll see about that! Oh, my, yes, and a bushel of apple turnovers besides! Aha! Ahem!" Then he looked most severely at that fox, most severely, I do assure you, and he asked: "Were you going to eat up my friend Sammie Littletail?" "I was, but I didn't know he was a friend of yours," replied the fox, beginning to tremble. Oh, you could see right away that he was afraid of that little green man. "Oh, you bad fox, you!" cried the little green man. "Oh, you bad fox! Just for that I'm going to turn you into a little country village! Presto, chango! Smacko, Mackeo! Bur-r-r-r!" and he waved his hands at the fox, who immediately disappeared. And he was changed into a little country village, with a church, a school and thirty-one houses, and it's called Foxtown to this very day. I ought to know, for I used to live there. "Well, Sammie?" asked the little green man, when the fox had vanished, "How do you feel now?" "Much better, kind sir. Thank you. But who are you?" "Me? Who am I? Why, don't you know?" "No, indeed, unless you're some relation to Bully, the frog." "Well, I am a sort of distant thirty-second cousin to him. I am the green fairy. And to prove it, look here, I will get your ball back for you." Then while Sammie looked on, his eyes getting bigger and bigger and his breath coming faster and faster, until it was like a locomotive or a choo-choo, whatever you call them, going up hill, if that little green man didn't wave his hands over that puddle of water, where Sammie's ball had fallen. And he spoke the magic word, which must never be spoken except on Friday nights, so if you read this on any night but Friday you must skip it, and wait. The word is (Tirratarratorratarratirratarratum), and I put it in brackets, so there would be no mistake. Well, all of a sudden, after the magic word was spoken, if Sammie's ball didn't come bounding up out of that water, and it was as dry as a bone, and it had a nice, new, clean, white cover on. "There," said the little green man proudly, "I guess that's doing some tricks in the fairy line, isn't it?" "It certainly is," agreed Sammie, "I can't thank you enough." "Just believe in fairies after this," said the little green man, as he changed into a bumble bee and flew off. Now, how would you like to hear about Susie and the fairy godmother to-morrow night, eh?     <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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