hat he had done
during the year.

"You see, you see!" said Mummy Tyl, crying. "They have lost their
heads, something will happen to them; run and fetch the doctor...."

But the woodcutter was not the man to put himself out for such a
trifle. He kissed the little ones, calmly lit his pipe and declared
that they looked very well and that there was no hurry.

At that moment, there came a knock at the door and the neighbour
walked in. She was a little old woman leaning on a stick and very much
like the Fairy Berylune. The Children at once flung their arms around
her neck and capered round her, shouting merrily:

"It's the Fairy Berylune!"

The neighbour, who was a little hard of hearing, paid no attention to
their cries and said to Mummy Tyl:

"I have come to ask for a bit of fire for my Christmas stew.... It's
very chilly this morning.... Good-morning, children...."

Meanwhile, Tyltyl had become a little thoughtful. No doubt, he was
glad to see the old Fairy again; but what would she say when she heard
that he had not the Blue Bird? He made up his mind like a man and
went up to her boldly:

"Fairy Berylune, I could not find the Blue Bird...."

"What is he saying?" asked the neighbor, quite taken aback.

Thereupon Mummy Tyl began to fret again:

"Come, Tyltyl, don't you know Goody Berlingot?"

"Why, yes, of course," said Tyltyl, looking the neighbor up and down.
"It's the Fairy Berylune."

"Bery ... what?" asked the neighbor.

"Berylune," answered Tyltyl, calmly.

"Berlingot," said the neighbor. "You mean Berlingot."

Tyltyl was a little put out by her positive way of talking; and he
answered:

"Berylune or Berlingot, as you please, ma'am, but I know what I'm
saying...."

Daddy Tyl was beginning to have enough of it:

"We must put a stop to this," he said. "I will give them a smack or
two."

"Don't," said the neighbor; "it's not worth while. It's only a little
fit of dreaming; they must have been sleeping in the moonbeams.... My
little girl, who is very ill, is often like that...."

Mummy Tyl put aside her own anxiety for a moment and asked after the
health of Neighbor Berlingot's little girl.

"She's only so-so," said the neighbor, shaking her head. "She can't
get up.... The doctor says it's her nerves.... I know what would cure
her, for all that. She was asking me for it only this morning, for her
Christmas present...."

She hesitated a little, looked at Tyltyl with a sigh and added, in a
d