ground on which he lay, determined to go home at once; but at a little distance off he saw the fairies dancing in the moonlight, and somehow he felt again he could not leave them and the pitcher.  The next day, however, he was so miserable that the fairies noticed it, and one of them said to him:  “Whatever is the matter?  We don’t care to keep unhappy people here.  If you can’t enjoy life as we do, you had better go home.”

Then Subha Datta was very much frightened lest they should really send him away; so he told them about his dream and that he was afraid his dear ones were starving for want of the money lie used to earn for them.

“Don’t worry about them,” was the reply:  “we will let your wife know what keeps you away.  We will whisper in her ear when she is asleep, and she will be so glad to think of your happiness that she will forget her own troubles.”

11.  Do you think what the fairies said to the woodcutter was likely to comfort him about his wife and children?

12.  If you had been in Subha Datta’s place what would you have said to the fairies when they made this promise?

CHAPTER VII

Subha Datta was very much cheered by the sympathy of the fairies, so much so that he decided to stop with them for a little longer at least.  Now and then he felt restless, but on the whole the time passed pleasantly, and the pitcher was a daily delight to him.

Meanwhile his poor wife was at her wits’ end how to feed her dear children.  If it had not been that the two boys were brave, plucky little chaps, she really would have been in despair.  When their father did not come back and all their efforts to find him were in vain, these boys set to work to help their mother.  They could not cut down trees, but they could climb them and chop off small branches with their axes; and this they did, making up bundles of faggots and selling them to their neighbours.  These neighbours were touched by the courage they showed, and not only paid them well for the wood but often gave them milk and rice and other little things to help them.  In time they actually got used to being without Subha Datta, and the little girls nearly forgot all about him.  Little did they dream of the change that was soon to come into their lives.

13.  Was it a good or a bad thing for the boys that their father did not come back?

14.  If you think it was a good thing, will you explain why? and if it was a bad thing, why you think it was?

CHAPTER VIII

A month passed peacefully away in the depths of the forest, Subha Datta waiting on the fairies and becoming every day more selfish and bent on enjoying himself.  Then he had another dream, in which he saw his wife and children in the old home with plenty of food, and evidently so happy without him that he felt quite determined to go and show them he was still alive.  When he woke he said to the fairies, “I will not stop with you any longer.  I have had a good time here, but I am tired of this life away from my own people.”