the
summer noon
Three could ride at once on the back of a devil 's riding horse , she knew , and in the daytime they rode the dragon flies , two at a time ; they were so light it was nothing for the great green and gold , big-eyed dragon flies to carry two . Betty knew a place below the spring where the maidenhair fern grew thick and spread out wide , perfect fronds on slender brown stems , shading fairy bowers ; and where taller ferns grew high and leaned over like a delicate fairy forest ; and where the wild violets grew so thick you could not see the ground beneath them , and the grass was lush and long like fine green hair , and crept up the hillside and over the roots of the maple and basswood trees . Here lived the elves ; she knew them well , and often lay with her head among the violets , listening for the thin sound of their elfin fiddles . Often she had drowsed the summer noon in the coolness , unheeding the dinner call , until busy Martha roused her with the sisterly scolding she knew she deserved and took in good part . Now as Betty crept cautiously about , peering and hoping with a half-fearing expectation , a sweet , threadlike wail trembled out toward her across the moonlit and shadowed space . Her father was tuning his violin . Her mother sat at his side , hushing Bobby in her arms .