little dorothy always begged her mother to loop up one of her window curtains when she went to bed, that she might go to sleep watching the stars twinkle, and in the morning see the sun rise, and after he had risen, see if his goldy locks were all on end, as her own often were.
one morning she woke up, not quite as early as usual, and found her room full of light, which seemed to dance about some bright object on a chair by her bedside. for a moment she lay quite still, thinking that perhaps it was some fairy's wand which caused such a glitter, and that presently a real, live fairy, with beautiful gold wings, would perch on her thumb, and offer to grant her three wishes like other obliging fairies she had read about. and the very first wish that came into her head was for a pair of roller skates; and having got fairly awake at last, she saw that this bright something by her bedside was indeed a beautiful new pair of skates, so bright that she could see her own happy face reflected in them!
"mother, mother!" she called out, "come quick! did you or the fairies bring me these lovely new skates?"
mother smiled. "who do you think?" she asked, cuddling her little daughter up close.
"i guess it was you, dear mother," answered the little girl, with a grateful hug; "you're better than any fairy."
after breakfast dorothy hurried off to the park. she strapped her skates on as fast as she could and was just about to glide away on the smooth pavement when she noticed a poor little girl standing near, watching her with almost a hungry expression in her sad brown eyes. "do you like to skate?" asked dorothy.
"do i! i just love it; but father had to sell my skates because he had no money to buy food with." dorothy sat down again on the bench and undid the straps, letting one of the skates fall on the ground in her hurry.
"you put these skates on just as fast as you can, and then you take as long a skate as you want to; i'll sit here and watch you."
when the little girl came back, flushed and smiling, dorothy said: "would you like my old skates? they're not very nice, because one of the straps is gone, and they are dingy and rusty, but perhaps your father could put on a new strap."
the little girl smiled such a glad little smile. "well, i just guess i would!" she answered quickly. "you're awfully good to me," and she looked at dorothy with such a grateful little face that dorothy answered, "let's go home right away and get them."
