[Illustration: "PLUMP DOWN HE FELL THROUGH THE QUILT."]
"And there he went floating down the stream, and shouting and laughing
at them. For, you know, it's not being in running water that can
hurt one of the Good People, but only crossing it, and if they tried
to cross it they'ld be in awful pain till they got to the middle, and
then nothing could keep them from falling in.
"So they were rid of him, and you know when you're rid of a changeling
the Good People must send your own child back. And so the neighbors
had not got back to the house when they met the mother running to meet
them and bringing her own child, that she had found in its bed, when
she got back from the town, sleeping, as well and as sound as ever it
was.
"And now, Ellen," said Mrs. O'Brien, "will you let me try, in ways
that I know, that can do no harm, whether this is your own child or
not? And if it's not, you'll have your own back, as well as it was
last night."
"This is my own child," Ellen answered, "and it's not by any silly
tales like that that you can make me believe it isn't.
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