her to say some wonderful thing; but, when at length she did speak, she only said, Child, are you happy?'

"No,' said the boy in a low voice, 'because I want to paint, and I cannot.'

"How do you know that you cannot ?' asked the fairy.

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O, fairy,' replied the boy, because I have tried a great many times. It is of no use trying any longer.'

"What if I were to help you?' said the fairy.

There would then, indeed, be some pleasure in the work, and some chance of success,' said the boy.

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I was just closing my leaves for the night,' answered the fairy, when you drew me out of the water; and I should have made you feel the effects of my resentment if it had not happened that you are the favourite of our race. Under the water, at the bottom of this lake, are our palaces and castles; and when, after visiting the upper world, we wish to return to them, we close one of these lilies over us, and sink in it to our home. The wish that I heard you utter just now induced me to appear to you. I know a powerful charm which will ensure you success, and the accomplishment of your highest wishes; but it is one which requires a great deal of care and patience in the working, and I cannot put you in possession of it unless you will promise the most implicit obedience to my directions.'

"Spirit of a water-lily!' said the boy, 'I promise with all my heart.'

"Go home, then,' continued the fairy, and you will find lying on the threshold a little key; take it up.'

"I will,' answered the boy, and what then shall I do ?'

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Carry it to the nearest pine tree,' said the fairy,' strike the trunk with it, and a key-hole will appear. Do not be afraid to unlock that magic door. Slip in your hand, and you will bring out a wonderful pallette. I have not time now to tell you half its virtues; but they will soon unfold themselves. You must be very careful to paint with colors from that pallette every day. On this depends the success of the charm. You will find that it will soon give grace to your figures, and beauty to your coloring; and I promise you that, if you do not break the spell, you shall not only in a few years be able to produce

as beautiful a copy of these flowers as can be wished, but your name shall become known to fame, and your genius shall be honored, and your pictures delighted in on both sides the Atlantic.'

"Can it be possible,' said the boy; and the hand trembled on which stood the fairy.

"It shall be so, if only you do not break the charm,' said the fairy; but lest, like the rest of your ungrateful race, you should forget what you owe to me, and even when you grow older begin to doubt whether you have ever seen me, the lily you gathered will never fade till my promise is accomplished.'

་ ་

"So saying she gathered round her the folds of her robe, crossed her arms, and dropping her head on her breast trembled slightly; and, before the boy could remark the change, he had nothing in his hand but a flower.

"He looked up; all the beautiful rosy flowers were faded to a shady grey. The gold had disappeared from the water, and the forest was dense and gloomy. He arose with the lily in his hand, went slowly home, laid it in a casket to protect it from injury, and then proceeded to search for the pallette, which he shortly found; and, lest he should break the spell, he began to use it that very night.

"Who would not like to have a fairy friend? Who would not like to work with a magic pallette? Every day its virtues became more apparent. He worked very hard; and it was astonishing how soon he improved. His deep, heavy outlines soon became light and clear; and his coloring began to assume a transparent delicacy. He was so delighted with the fairy present that he even did more than was required of him. He spent nearly all his leisure time in using it; and often passed whole days beside the sheet of water in the forest. He painted it when the sun shone, and it was spotted all over with the reflection of fleeting white clouds; he painted it, covered with water-lilies rocking on the ripples; by moonlight, when two or three stars in the empty sky shone down upon it; and at sunset, when it lay trembling, like liquid gold.

"But the fairy never came to look at his work. He often called to her, particularly when he had been more than usually

successful; but she never made him any answer, nor took the least notice of his entreaties that he might see her again.

"So a long time-several years-passed away. He was grown up to be a man, and he had never broken the charm; he still worked every day with his magic pallette.

"No one in those parts cared at all for his pictures. His mother's friends told him he would never get his bread by painting; his mother herself was sorry that he chose to waste his leisure so; and the more because the pictures on her walls were brighter far than his, and had clouds and trees of far clearer color, not like the common clouds and misty hills that he was so fond of painting, and his faintly-coloured distant forest, with uncertain and variable hues, such as she could see any day, when she looked out at her window.

"It made the young man unhappy to hear all this fault found with his proceedings, but it never made him leave off using the fairy's pallette, though about this time he himself began to doubt whether he should ever be a painter. One evening, he sat at his easel, trying in vain to give the expression he wished to an angel's face, which seemed to get less and less like the face in his heart with every touch he gave it. On a sudden he threw down his brush, and with a feeling of bitter disappointment upbraided himself for what he now thought his folly in listening to the fairy, and accepting her delusive gift. What had he got by it hitherto? Nothing but his mother's regrets, and the ridicule of his companions. He threw himself on his bed. It grew dark, and he could no longer be vexed with the sight of his unfinished angel; and presently he fell asleep, and forgot his sorrow.

"In the middle of the night he suddenly awoke. His chamber was full of moonlight. The lid of the casket where he kept the lily, had sprung open, and his fairy friend stood near it.

"American painter,' she said in a reproachful voice, ‘since you think I have been rather a foe than a friend to you, I am ready to take back my gift.'

"But sleep had now cooled the young painter's mind, and softened his feeling of vexation, so that he did not find himself at all willing to part with the pallette. While he hesitated how to excuse himself she further said, 'But if you still wish

to try what it can do for you, take this ring, which my sister sends you; wear it, and it will greatly assist the charm.'

"The youth held out his hand, and took the ring. As he cast his eyes upon it, the fairy vanished. He turned it to the moonlight, and saw that it was set with a stone of a transparent blue color. It had the property of reflecting every thing bright that came near it; and there was a word engraven upon it. He thought-he could not be sure-but he thought the word was 'Hope.'

"After this, and during a long time, I can tell you no more about him: whether he finished the angel's face, and whether it pleased him at last, I do not know. I only know that, in process of time, his mother died-that he came to Europe-and that he was quite unknown and very poor.

"The next thing recorded of him is this, that on a sudden he became famous. The world began to admire his works, and to seek his company. He was considered a great man, and wealth and honors flowed in upon him. It happened to him that one day in travelling he came to a great city, where there was a large collection of pictures. He went to see them; and among them he saw many of his own pictures; some of them he painted before he left his forest home; others were of more recent date. All the people and all the painters praised them. But there was one that they liked better than the others; and when he heard them call it his master-piece he went and sat down opposite to it, that he might think over again some of the thoughts that he had had when he painted it.

"It was a picture of a little child, holding in its hands several beautiful water-lilies; and the crowd that gathered round it praised the lightness of the drapery, the beauty of the infant form, the soft light shed down upon it, and, above all, the innocent expression of the baby features.

"He was pleased, but not elated. He called to mind the words of his fairy benefactress, and acknowledged to himself that at length they were certainly fulfilled.

"And then it drew towards evening, and the people one by one disappeared, till he was left alone with his masterpiece. The excitement of the day had made him anxious for repose. He was thinking of leaving the place, when suddenly he fell

asleep, and dreamed that he was standing behind the sheet of water in his native country, and lingering, as of old, to watch the rays of the setting sun, as they melted away from its surface. He thought, too, that his beautiful lily was in his hand; and that while he looked at it the leaves withered and fell at his feet. Then followed a confused recollection of his conversation with the fairy; and after that his thoughts became clearer, and though still asleep, he remembered where he was, and in what place he was sitting. His impressions became more vivid—he dreamed that something lightly touched his hand. He looked up, and his fairy benefactress was at his side, standing on the arm of his chair.

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O, wonderful enchantress!' said the dreaming painter, ‘do not vanish before I have had time to thank you for your magic gift. I have nothing to offer you but my gratification in return; for the diamonds of this world are too heavy for such an ethereal being, and the gold of this world is useless to you who have no wants that it can supply. The fame I have acquired I cannot impart to you, for few of my race believe in the existence of yours. What, then, can I do? I can only thank you for your goodness. But tell me at least your name, if you have a name, that I may cut it on a ring, and wear it always on my finger.'

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My name,' answered the fairy,' is Perseverance.”› "Well!" said the children looking at each other," she has cheated us after all!"

ANNA, THE ELDER SISTER.

(Continued from page 373.)

CHAPTER IX.

ORRIS.

Letter to Lucy-her engagements in doing good, and her great attention to her grandfather too much for her health-change of air-visits of Dr. C-, in her affliction-last days-funeral-character-lines occasioned by her decease, October 16, 1828.

THE following was addressed to her sister Lucy

'April 4, 1828.-My dear Lucy,-I think I cannot accompany the little present I design to give you more suitably, and perhaps not more acceptably, than by extracting for you a