Sophie, the little dreamer, lay in her bed one starry night. The moonlight poured into her room from her window, bathing it in soft silvery light. “If only,” thought Sophie, “I could visit the Kingdom of Dreams where wishes come true!”
Sometimes she did visit that wonderful land in her dreams, but now she was too wide awake. So she squeezed her eyes shut tightly. “If I could only go to sleep! If only I could have some sort of a wonderful little fairy to come and let me travel about this great world of ours to-night!”
And lo! and behold! There before her stood a dainty fairy with gossamer wings. In her tiny hand she held a dainty golden key.
“Sophie, you’ve wished for me to-night, and here I am,” said she. “If you want to take a little voyage in Dreamland, your silver-hued boat waits for you to enter it.”
“Oh, how lovely!” murmured Sophie.
“But there’s much to see before you set sail.”
So saying, the fairy waved her wand and there stood before Sophie a great book entitled ‘The Wishbook’. It was bound in blue velvet, clasped with silver. The pages, filled with faintly-printed little letters, turned themselves up eagerly and one after the other crept into Sophie’s lap.
“This is for very, very little folk who do not know how to wish wisely. This is an upside-down book you can just read. When a child makes a wish this book tells how to do it. If you can follow all the hints printed there you will never see a wrong wish come true.”
Sophie’s fingers flew across the pages opening and shutting them. What a wonderful book to have! She felt so bright and happy she didn’t know what to do next. “Take me to the Kingdom of Dreams!” she begged of the fairy.
“First you must write in your Wishbook,” answered the fairy. “Shut your eyes so that you cannot see what you are doing and write very carefully. Now, on what page are you going to write?”
“I love kittens. I love kittens,” said Sophie softly.
The fairy stood still.
“But I can hear you quite well,” she repeated.
“How do I know what page?” said Sophie.
“I do not know what page either until you say where it is.”
“But how can I remember all the pages in that big thick book?” asked Sophie.
“Just shut your eyes and wish. I will show you.”
Sophie shut her eyes and counted a hundred—one, two—a hundred and one, two—when suddenly she heard the fairy’s voice saying:
“If you don’t hurry and write your wish you will never have it at all!”
Sophie opened one eye just a slit.
“I found out all those pages long ago,” she said. “Tell me quick, fairy.”
“Page five hundred and twenty,” said the fairy.
So Sophie wrote “I love kittens” in that page, and the moment she finished a little pink kitten appeared and stopped beside her bed.
“Oh! Oh!” cried Sophie joyfully. Now she held the kitten tight in her arms, hugging it to her heart’s content.
“Now tell me—tell me!” she said.
“Not yet! You tell me if you do not hear a clock strike.”
Sophie stopped to listen.
Bong! Bong! Bong! rang the clock on the wall. Oh! it was the hour of twelve! How very long! how very, very long that hand took to creep around to twelve!
“Now you have only six minutes before you sail. You had better write at once or never,” said the fairy.
“I wish—“ began Sophie.
“Do not speak out your wish, but write it!” [She bent over the book and in a flash of inspiration wrote “I wish I may go all over this great big world to-night, and see all that is beautiful and good in it.”]
Sophie signed her name. Just then the whole room was filled with bright lights and all around were wondrous beautiful moving pictures, each finer than the one just seen.
“Oh, I can stand it no longer,” screamed Sophie in a rapture of delight.
“You see the world as it is seen in dreams such as people have when they have the true wish in their hearts,” whispered the fairy to Sophie. “These are genuine dreams that lead to action; such dreams come true always. But sadly enough, most dreams die in the first faint light of the morrow and never materialize. Make haste, dear child. Your six minutes are up.”
But Sophie hardly heard what the fairy said. She was lost to earthly sublunary things while gazing at all the beautiful pictures.
Bong! Bong! Bong! rang the clock, loudly broken were Sophie’s little dreams of other days; little Sophie lay wide awake in the morning sunshine, still dreaming and wishing.