8 THE ELF-ERRANT

" to steer; and he sang aloud to it in his clear thread of a
voice—
“ Dandy-puff, dandy-puff !
Take your time, and time enough,
Dandy-puff, dandy-puff!
Don’t you like this rhyme enough?
Dandy-puff, dandy-puff |”?

He was so pleased with his occupation that it was
some moments before the voice of Rose Red reached his
ears, saying something about “an exhibition of pure
folly.”

“Buds and blossoms!” exclaimed Trefoil. “I had
forgotten the Elf. What’s the matter now?”

“Oh, nothing of the slightest consequence,” said Rose
Red sarcastically. ‘When you have quite done with
your fluffs and your follies, perhaps you will kindly let me
know, and then we can be getting on again. But don’t
hurry on my account. I shall await your convenience
here.”

And he folded his wings and dropped with absolute
precision on the crest of a daisy.

‘¢ Dandy-puff, dandy-puff !
I’m afraid he’s in a huff,”

sang Trefoil after his dear little seedling. But he let the
seedling go, and dropped down immediately to the