258 WHISPERS FROM FAIRYLAND. Lv.

 

that under the circumstances he had better refrain from
doing so, and accordingly contented himself with
attributing the contemptuous epithet applied to his
friend by the old gentleman as merely the proverbial
jealousy of one singer towards another who had been
praised in his hearing. Wishing therefore to change
the subject, he turned round to his two companions,
and addressing them with much respect, said, ‘ Will
you kindly tell me how it is that your gardeners have
such curious heads ?’

‘Curious heads!’ cried May, ‘I don’t see it at all.
They have the heads bestowed upon them by their
masters, who, in a properly enchanted place, called
them “ Pudding-headed fellows,” and hence the result.
I don’t see what they have to complain of, they do
very well?

‘But,’ rejoined Harry, ‘what right had their masters
to make them thus?’

‘My boy,’ remarked the little brown, gentleman,
‘do not seek to know too much. However, I may
frankly tell you that their masters did not know that
this result would follow their application of such an
epithet to their servants. They knew not, any more
than the men themselves, that they were standing
upon an enchanted spot, where a wish formed by one
mortal with respect to another, or an expression ap-
plied by one person to another, would instantly be
followed by practical results. But as no mortals do
know where these enchanted places happen to be
situated, they ought to be much more careful than they
are as to what they say or wish about other people.
No one knows the effect a careless word may have.’

This struck Harry as being a sensible remark, and,