"I can't think," said Teddy."Seems as if I knew, but I can't think."They were in a long, bare, clean room, and on each side of it were rows of little white beds, and in each bed lay or sat a little child.A few of the children were asleep, most of them were awake, but all looked pale and thin.Here and there at the sides of the beds grown-up people were sitting, sometimes showing the children pictures or books, and sometimes reading to them.
The children from the rainbow walked slowly up the aisle between the row of beds, and, strangely enough, no one seemed to look at them or pay the least attention, any more than if they had not been there, and at last Teddy began to believe that they could not see them.
Often the little strange children stopped to smooth a pillow or to softly stroke the cheek or hand of one of the little earth children.
Here and there one would linger behind the others, by some bed, and after a moment would lay its bunch of flowers on the pillow.Then the little child in the bed would turn its head and smile, even if it were asleep, and its face would shine as if with some inward happiness.The whole room seemed filled with the perfume of flowers, and Teddy wondered that no one paid any attention to it.
At last they came to a bed where a little child was lying fast asleep, and a woman was sitting beside the child and fanning it.Suddenly its eyes opened, and the moment they turned toward the rainbow children, Teddy knew that it saw them.
It lay looking for a moment and then it smiled and feebly tried to wave its hand."What is it, dear?" asked the woman, bending over the child, but it paid no attention to her, for it was gazing at the rainbow children.
"Oh, he sees us! he sees us!" they cried, clapping their hands joyfully.
"He'll be coming across the rainbow soon."Then the rainbow children gathered about the bed and began talking to the child, but Teddy could not understand what they said to it.The little child on the bed seemed to understand them though, and it smiled and tried to nod its head.
"Come soon! Come soon!" cried the little children, waving their hands to it as they moved away, and the eyes of the child on the bed followed them wistfully, as though it were eager to follow.
Teddy and Ellen still went with the other little children, and a moment after they were out on the rainbow bridge again, high up above the world, but they were alone, for the little strange children were gone.
Ellen stood still and drew a long breath."Oh! wasn't that lovely?" she sighed."I wonder where it was!""I know where it was!" cried Teddy suddenly."I remember now, for I saw a picture of it in one of papa's magazines.That was a hospital, Ellen.""A hospital!" cried the little girl.
"Yes, a hospital."
Ellen did not say anything for some time, but at last she drew another deep breath."Well, if that's a hospital I shouldn't mind going to a place like that," she said.
The rainbow had faded away, and Teddy was back in the great high-post bedstead again, with the silk coverlet drawn up over his knees, and the Counterpane Fairy still sitting on top of the hill.Teddy lay looking at her for a while in silence."Mrs.Fairy, was that a true story like the others?" he asked her at last.
"How should I know?" asked the fairy."Do I look as though I knew anything about rainbow children? You'd better ask Ellen McFinney; maybe she can tell you.""Well, I will," said Teddy."I mean to ask her just as soon as ever I'm well."He did not have to wait for that, however, for the very next day his mother told him that little Ellen had at last consented to be taken to the hospital, and that perhaps when he saw the little girl again she would be able to walk and run about almost like other children.
