108 Fairy Tales

and every inch of him to the tip of his
bushy tail longed fora fight. So he curled
himself on the ground, keeping one eye
open as usual, and Dick wandered down
a grassy path where by this time the
creatures and the elves had forgotten their
fright and crept out again, swinging and
dancing and calling to each other and to
Dick. It was a great joke for them to
sit on the branches and rustle the leaves
so that the dew-drops fell on his head in
a shower, until he pretended to be half-
drowned. But at last one whispered—

‘“We haven’t shown him the new flower.
Look, Dick, look, there’s the most comical
little fellow belonging to it that ever you
saw in your life!”

“Oh, yes, look, look!” they cried together.

Then there was a tinkling clatter of
laughter, and Dick began to laugh too,
he couldn’t help it, for the elf was sitting
with his back turned to them all, and his
hair twisted up among the green spikes of
the flower.