"I love to see the shine upon the river like that," said the Imp, dreamily; "Auntie Lisbeth says it's the path that the Moon-fairies come down by to bring you nice dreams when you've been good. I've got out of bed lots of times an' watched an' watched, but I've never seen them come. Do you think there are fairies in the moon, Uncle Dick?" 

 "Undoubtedly," I answered; "how else does it keep so bright? I used to wonder once how they managed to make it shine so." 

 "It must need lots of rubbing!" said the Imp; "I wonder if they ever get tired?" 

 "Of course they do, Imp, and disheartened, too, sometimes, like the rest of us, and then everything is black, and people wonder where the moon is. But they are very brave, these Moon-fairies, and they never quite lose hope, you know; so they presently go back to their rubbing and polishing, always starting at one edge. And in a little while we see it begin to shine again, very small and thin at first, like a—" 

 "Thumb-nail!" 

 "Yes, just like a thumb-nail; and so they go on working and working at it until it gets as big and round and bright as it is to-night." 

 Thus we walked together through a fairy world, the Imp and I, while above the murmur of the waters, above the sighing of the trees, came the soft, tremulous melody of the violins. 

 "I do wish I had lived when there were knights like Ivanhoe," burst out the Imp suddenly; "it must have been fine to knock a man off his horse with your lance." 

 "Always supposing he didn't knock you off first, Imp." 

 "Oh! I should have been the sort of knight that nobody could knock off, you know. An' I'd have wandered about on my faithful charger, fighting all sorts of caddish barons, and caitiffs, an' slaying giants; an' I'd have rescued lovely ladies from castles grim—though I wouldn't have put my arm round them, of course!" 

 "Perish the thought, my Imp!" 

 "Uncle Dick!" he said, insinuatingly, "I do wish you'd be the Black Knight, an' let me be Ivanhoe." 

 "But there are no caitiffs and things left for us to fight, Imp, and no lovely ladies to rescue from castles grim, alas!" 

 Now we had been walking on, drawn almost imperceptibly by the magic thread of the 

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