THERE was a pretty little silver bell on papa’s desk, but the children never knew that it was a fairy bell until one summer afternoon.  
It all happened in this way. They had been playing school and Dorothy was the teacher. She said:—
 
“When I ring this bell once you must sit up straight and when I ring it twice you must stand!” They played all the afternoon, and the teacher romped¹ with the pupil and they both rang the bell until they were tired of it. All at once, as they sat in the great leather-covered chair, the bell began to ring itself, but instead of the little tinkle², tinkle, it sounded just like joyous³ wedding-bells.
 
The children rubbed their eyes and looked at the little silver bell, and there right on the54 top of it stood a beautiful little fairy with silver wings and a dress that shone like silver.
 
She smiled at the children and said. “You rang for me and I am here.”
 
“Who are you, please?” asked Ray.
 
“I am the fairy of the silver bell and my name is Tinkle.”
 
“Where do you live?” said Dorothy timidly.
 
“I live in Prince Jingle⁴’s country, but when anybody rings for me I come to attend.”
 
“How I would love to visit Prince Jingle’s country!” exclaimed Dorothy. “Wouldn’t you, Ray?”
 
“Yes, indeed,” replied Ray, “it would be fine.”
 
“Very well,” said the fairy, “you shall go. Take hold of the tongue of the bell with both hands and don’t let go till I tell you.” The children did as the fairy told them and in a few moments they were moving through the air under the silver dome⁵ of the bell.
 
“Don’t be afraid, children,” cried the fairy, “I am sitting on the top and will guide you safely.”
 
“Thank you,” said Ray, “what fun this is! Be careful, Dorothy, to hold on tight.”
 
All at once they stopped. The children felt something hard under their feet, and the fairy Tinkle said, “Come out, children, and go where you please.” Then she disappeared and the children looked around to see their new surroundings.
 
“I suppose this is Prince Jingle’s country,” said Ray; “let us walk through it.” Just as they started to walk, they heard the most beautiful bells ringing. It was like sweet music and far clearer and prettier than any chimes. In a short time they came in sight of a beautiful silver castle. Silver coaches and carriages were standing⁶ outside and lovely ladies were walking into the castle on the arms of handsome men.
 
“We must go in the castle, too,” said Ray.
 
But Dorothy exclaimed, “O dear, I couldn’t, because I’m not dressed nice enough.”
 
“Never mind that,” said Ray, “come along.”
 
“O, no,” cried Dorothy, “I’m not going, because I’ve nothing to wear.”
 
“Bother,” said Ray, “you girls are always saying that; do you ever feel that you are dressed nice enough?”
 
“N—no, I don’t think we ever do; still, if I had on my best dress, I’d go in.”
 
“Well, if you won’t come, I’m going alone,” returned Ray, and he started off and left Dorothy standing there.
 
“O Ray, come back! come back!” called Dorothy. “I’ll go with you.” But Ray was so far ahead that he never heard his little cousin calling, and the last Dorothy saw of him he was just going into the castle. Dorothy felt so badly to think that she was left alone she sat on the silvery ground and began to cry. Then a very queer thing happened. The first tear57 that rolled down Dorothy’s cheeks congealed⁷ into a tiny solid silver ball, and fell in her lap.
 
Dorothy stopped crying and gazed at the tear that had become a silver ball. She took it up in her hand, and all of a sudden it began to grow larger and larger. Then it changed a little in shape, and almost before Dorothy knew it her silver tear-drop had turned itself into the dearest little silver bell you ever saw.
 
“How pretty!” exclaimed Dorothy, and she rang the tiny bell that had been made from a tear-drop in her own blue eye.
 
It gave the prettiest little tinkling⁸ sound in the world and she liked it so well that she rang it again and again.
 
Suddenly there appeared before Dorothy a beautiful fairy in a shimmering⁹ gown of silvery gray.
 
“I am sorry you had to ring so many times for me,” said the fairy, “but I was busy dressing¹⁰ Princess Bell and I could not get here sooner.”
 
“I did not ring for you,” answered Dorothy, “but I am very glad you came.”
 
“Whenever that bell is rung I come,” said the fairy. “Pray tell me what I can do for you?”
 
The thought struck Dorothy that perhaps the fairy could give her something pretty to wear, and then she would go into the silver castle.
 
“If you please, good fairy, I would love to go to the castle, if you would help me with a pretty dress.”
 
“Certainly,” answered the fairy, and she touched Dorothy lightly on the shoulder. Instantly Dorothy’s white pinafore changed into a silvery robe all spangled and dazzling in its beauty.
 
Then she touched Dorothy’s ankle ties and they became silver slippers¹¹ with a satin rosette on each one.
 
“O, thank you,” said the happy little girl, looking down at her beautiful dress.
 
“You are very welcome,” returned the fairy, and then added, “Shall I call a chariot?”
 
“If you please,” said Dorothy, who wasn’t quite sure what it was, but had a strong feeling that she wanted it. The fairy blew a tiny silver horn and immediately there appeared a silver chariot drawn¹² by four silvery white ponies¹³. A coachman and a footman in silver livery attended Dorothy, and before she knew it she was sitting in the beautiful chariot driving over silvery roads.
 
She felt so happy that she wanted to sing, but just then the chariot stopped at the entrance to the silver castle and Dorothy jumped out and walked up to the beautiful door.
 
When she was inside a scene of fairy splendor¹⁴ presented itself to her astonished eyes. Beautiful ladies—each one a Princess—were dancing with brave, handsome men,—each one a Prince,and the music was just like sweet bells, all ringing in tune¹⁵.
 
Dorothy stood a minute and then the bravest Prince in the room came up to her and said:
 
“I am Prince Jingle. May I have the pleasure of dancing with the most beautiful guest in my castle?”
 
Dorothy took his arm with one of her most winning smiles, and the next minute she was dancing around the room with the Prince.
 
“It’s lovely,” thought Dorothy. “If only Ray could see me now I don’t think he would run off and leave me.”
 
“I don’t think he would either,” said the beautiful Prince.
 
“O,” said Dorothy surprised, “I was only thinking—I didn’t speak, you know.”
 
“I know you didn’t speak in words,” answered the Prince, “but your face spoke¹⁶.”
 
“I didn’t know I could speak with my face,”61 cried Dorothy, smiling to herself, and she thought, “I don’t believe I can, either.”
 
“O, yes, you can,” said the Prince, with a merry laugh, and Dorothy blushed to think that he knew just what she thought.
 
“I wonder how he can tell what is in my mind,” thought Dorothy, but she said nothing.
 
“It’s the easiest thing in the world to tell what is in a little girl’s mind,” said the Prince, “you can see it in her face, I tell you.”
 
“Will you please tell me how?” asked Dorothy, who was very much surprised to find that the Prince seemed to know exactly what she was thinking about all the time.
 
They stopped dancing and the Prince said:
 
“A little girl’s face is a mirror and shows all her thoughts.”
 
“I don’t quite understand,” replied Dorothy; “do you mean that you can tell what kind of little girls we are, by our faces?”
 
“That is just what I mean,” answered Prince62 Jingle. “Come with me and I’ll prove it to you.”
 
Dorothy followed the Prince down the long hall until he stopped at a door that opened into a road.
 
“Must you go outside to prove it?” asked Dorothy, who was loath¹⁷ to leave the beautiful castle.
 
“Yes, indeed,” said Prince Jingle; “we don’t have anything like that in our castle.”
 
At last the Prince stopped in front of a large building. Over the entrance it read in large letters
 
POUT¹⁸ & CO.
 
The Prince rang the bell and after waiting quite a long time, a little girl came to the door. Before she opened her mouth to speak Dorothy thought to herself, “O dear, what a cross little girl, she looks just as if she were going to snap at you.”
 
“How do you do?” said the Prince politely. “Are your sisters at home?”
 
“Don’t know, find out for yourself.”
 
Whew! how she snapped it out and then disappeared.
 
“Didn’t you see it in her face before she spoke?” said the Prince turning to Dorothy.
 
“Yes, every word of it,” replied Dorothy, and then she thought, “I don’t want to look like that, so I must never be cross and snappy.”
 
They stepped inside, and the very first thing they saw was a little girl standing near a table with her head down.
 
She looked up a moment, and Dorothy thought how pretty she would have been, if she didn’t look so sulky.
 
“Good morning, Miss Sulk,” said the Prince, but she shrugged¹⁹ her shoulders, hung her head lower, and never answered.
 
“Do come away,” cried Dorothy, and in her64 mind she said, “I never want to be like that, so I must never, never sulk.”
 
“Just a minute,” said the Prince, “that looks like Miss Temper in the garden, we must see her.”
 
Dorothy followed the Prince into the garden, where a girl was crying and stamping her feet.
 
“Oh, such a face,” thought Dorothy, while the Prince said:
 
“What is the matter, Miss Temper, can I help you?”
 
“No! no! no!” roared the ugly little girl, and she stamped harder than ever. Dorothy felt ashamed to think that any little girl could act so badly, and look so ugly.
 
She wanted to run away from the dreadful sight, and she cried:
 
“Goodness! Gracious! I hope that I will never give way to temper, for it would be awful to look like that.”
 
“Have you seen enough?” asked the Prince.
 
“Yes indeed, quite enough,” replied Dorothy.“I never knew that little girls’ faces showed everything.”
 
“It is too true,” said Prince Jingle, “when they are cross, and have unkind thoughts, they look ugly, and nobody cares to have them around, but when they are good and kind, obedient and happy, their faces are so beautiful, that every one likes to see them.”
 
Prince Jingle took Dorothy’s hand, and they hurried back to the castle, and in a few minutes he brought Dorothy a dish of silvery ice-cream and a piece of silver cake.
 
Just then Ray appeared with a beautiful princess, and they came over to Dorothy and sat down. The Prince got some cream and cake for them, and Ray exclaimed:
 
“O Dorothy, I’ve been to see such an ugly boy. His name was Temper, and he had two brothers, Sulk and Pout.”
 
“I saw their sisters,” said Dorothy. “Weren’t they homely²⁰?”
“Yes, they were,” said Ray eating the last delicious mouthful of his ice-cream.
 
“I don’t want to hurry you, my dears,” said Prince Jingle; “but don’t you have to catch a train or something?”
 
“Of course,” answered Ray, “we have to catch a bell.”
 
Then the children thanked Prince Jingle and hurried out of the castle, where they found Fairy Tinkle waiting for them, with the little silver bell.
 
In a few minutes they were swinging through the air, holding on to the tongue of the bell. All at once, so quick that you could not see it done, they found themselves safe in papa’s study sitting in the big leather chair.
 
The fairy bell was in its old place on the desk, but Fairy Tinkle had disappeared.