Even when you are very old, too old to care about playing games or with the cloud-shadows on the grass when the west wind is taking the big white ones that look like ships so across the sky, even then your feel pretty good at the first beginning of spring.  
Long before the grass shows a of green down by the fence corners and along the brookside there is a new smell to the air, a smell that makes you want to jump up and down and shout. Then come the pussy-willows, grey, , and , as if they had no notion how important they were. And after that—but we haven’t got farther than that just yet.
 
For that is where the spring stood when Rose and Ruth returned from their first ride of the season to the next with Marmie. A yellow and rose sky looked at them calmly from the west as they reached home and jumped off their .
 
“Wasn’t it a heavenly ride, Marmie?” exclaimed Rose, hauling off her saddle, the fine new saddle she was so proud of, and turning her horse into the corral. “Just think, it will soon be summer 240and we can stay outdoors all day long, and go on camping trips again. Jimminy-kingsy, it seems as if one couldn’t wait another minute!”
 
“What lots of waiting there is in life, isn’t there, Marmie?” said Ruth.
 
Marmie laughed. “Come to think of it, Ruth, you’re right. And now it’s supper we’re waiting for, or at least Dad is. Will it cheer you up to know we are going to have waffles?”
 
“Oh, Marmie! Umm—and just when we’re so hungry, too.”
 
“And after supper you two will have to amuse yourselves alone, for Dad and I are going to be busy all evening.”
 
Fortunately there were enough waffles, though Rose and Ruth had both doubted the possibility; they were so hungry that it seemed as though the world in all its length and breadth could hardly hold enough waffles to satisfy them. But when Daddy dared them to eat another they only sighed.
 
And when they went into the living room while Marmie and Dad departed to the , where they always worked over the new schemes for the ranch together, there was the fairy waiting for them!
 
Of course they didn’t see her. But the room was full of a kind of music, and they felt at once that she was dancing.
 
“Is it you, Fairy Honeysqueak? And are you dancing?—what scrumptious music it is.”
 
“I’ve been chatting with Spring,” answered Honeysqueak, “and that always leaves me in a dancy mood. That music was the echo of her talk—it always lingers awhile. Why, even you mortals dance to her.”
 
“Is that what makes one feel so light and jumpy? But we never heard her before.”
 
“You mean you didn’t know you heard; but you did, all the same. And now, unless you don’t want the trouble, I’m going to take you to London to see a little girl who has never been anything else but just a little girl.”
 
“Of course we want to go ... trouble! Oh, Fairykins!” That was Rose. Ruth wanted to know who the little girl was.
 
“She’s Little Nell, and I want you to be nice to her, for she doesn’t get much fun, you know.”
 
You may be sure they would be nice to her, and glad of the chance. So the fairy clasped their hands and led them once again through the Magic Gate. When they opened their shut eyes, after that well-remembered little jar of landing on the other side, they found themselves in a street.
 
It was a busy, crowded street, with carts down the middle and people hurrying along the pavements, some with parcels and baskets, all with umbrellas, for a thin rain was falling. Rose and Ruth found themselves clad in long cloaks of a circular pattern that fell almost to their feet, with little framing their faces, and they also had an umbrella, a big one for the two of them. Before them, smiling at them gently, was a little girl of a sweet and tender beauty, with a threadbare cloak of the same pattern as their own and a small and somewhat battered-looking umbrella. She carried a little basket on one arm.
 
“It’s Nell,” said Rose, “isn’t it? We’ve come to play with you, and we are going to have a lovely time.”
 
Nell looked a bit startled.
 
“But I have work that must be done,” she said. “And my grandfather needs me, I fear. Maybe you will come with me and see him?”
 
“Later,” said Rose. “But really this is a good-time day. The fairy said so, and we are going to be happy every minute. You don’t have any little girls to play with, Nell. And now you are going to play with us.” Rose was decidedly firm. She had always wanted Nell to have some real fun, and here she was with a chance to give it her.
 
Ruth, from under the umbrella, caught Little Nell by the hand.
 
“Come on, you sweet little thing,” she told her. “And first of all let’s get out of the rain. Is there a place near here where we can get some ice-cream or something good to eat? I’m hungry.”
Nell seemed to abandon her doubts. An expression of gaiety dawned in her serious blue eyes, and she squeezed Ruth’s hand .
 
“There’s a bun-shop just round the corner,” she answered, “and we can find anything we want there. I’ve been doing a number of errands, and my feet are so wet—it will be pleasant to get to a fire.”
 
“Then let’s hurry,” said Rose, and the sisters, flanking Nell on either side, with the rain dripping cheerily down their necks, hurried along the way she led them. As they went they and laughed . For it seemed exceedingly jolly to be along the shining pavement, with the roar of traffic in their ears, the passers-by smiling at them, and Little Nell looking shyly up, a flush on her cheeks and excitement all over her.
 
“I was so happy when I knew you were coming,” she , “only I really did not see how I could take so much time just to be a little girl in. But I feel I can, somehow, and it’s such a wonderful feeling.”
 
“Do you know, I think you are too good,” said Rose. “I never knew any girl on earth so good as you, Nell. You’re what Marmie calls , and that makes you work too hard. Don’t you think so, Ruth?”
 
“Yes, I do,” answered Ruth. “You know, if we are good very long Marmie thinks we can’t be feeling quite well. I don’t mean that we are bad, you know, but just kind of—oh, enterprising.”
 
Nell shook her solemn little head. And she looked so sweet and old-fashioned and lovely as she did that the sisters both wanted to hug her, but the umbrellas prevented.
 
“Life has always seemed rather a stern and difficult business, and all I can do is to hope that I shall not prove useless in carrying out my share of it,” she replied, . “You speak as though it were something to play through—and you almost make me feel that you are right.” She added this with a tiny sigh and a downward look, as though half frightened by the boldness of her conclusion.
 
“You bet we’re right,” said Rose. “Is this the bun-shop?”
 
It was. A window displayed cakes and , and a sign invited those who felt the of hunger to step inside.
 
Indoors a door led them into a neat, pretty room with a bright fire at one end, some pots of geranium blazing quite as brilliantly on the window board, a red carpet with huge bunches of yellow and green posies, and snowy curtains. A couple of tables and a number of wide-armed, comfortable chairs, with a dresser, completed the furniture of the place. At one of these tables a young man was sitting, with a pot of tea and some muffins before him.
 
“What a dandy room,” exclaimed the sisters,squeezing Nell’s hands in . “Come close to the fire, Nell, and dry yourself, or you’ll catch an awful cold. My, you are wet!”
 
And they busied themselves in her out of her cloak and , and in sitting her before the blaze with her feet stretched out on the fender. A motherly woman came in while they were busy with this and asked them smiling, “Would they have tea?”
 
Nothing could be better, they said, though they felt daring, because Marmie only allowed them to have it on their birthdays, as an immense treat. But they thought the present occasion warranted a real spree.
 
So tea came, with buns and toasted crumpets, which had been timidly suggested by Little N............