been his son who was to blame. So he told his son that he had been
very careless, and that surely the King would kill him, and that the
best thing he could do would be to run away and hide in Fairy-land.

Little Boy was very badly scared, and was well pleased when his mother
had put some cakes and apples in a bag and slung it over his shoulder
and told him to run quickly away; and this he was glad to do, because he
saw the King's soldiers coming over the hill to take him. When they came
to his father's house his father told them that it was his son who had
made the bad bricks. After hearing this, they let the man go, and went
after Little Boy. As their legs were long and his were short, they soon
got very near to him, and he had just time to scramble over the fence
into Fairy-land. Then the soldiers began to get over the fence, too; but
at this moment the giant Fee-Faw-Fum came out of the wood, and said, in
a voice that was as loud as the roar of the winds of a winter night:
"What do you want here?" This gave them such a fright that they all sat
there in a row on top of the fence like sparrows, and could not move for
a week. You may be sure Little Boy did not stop to look at them, but ran
away, far away into Fairy-land. Of course, he soon got lost, because in
the geographies there is not a word about Fairy-land, and nobody knows
even what bounds it on the north.

It is sad to be lost, but not in Fairy-land. The sooner you lose
yourself, the happier you are. And then such queer things chance to
you--things no one could dream would happen. Mostly it is the children
for whom they occur, and the grown-up person who is quite happy in this
joyous land is not often to be met with. Perhaps you think I will tell
you all about the fairy country. Not I, indeed. I have been there in my
time; but my travels there I cannot write, or else I might never be
allowed to return again.

By-and-by Little Boy grew tired and went into a deep wood and there sat
down and ate a cake, and saw very soon that the squirrels were throwing
him nuts from the trees. Of course, as he was in Fairy-land, this was
just what one might have expected. He tried to crack the nuts with his
teeth, but could not, and this troubled the squirrels so much that
presently nine of them came down and sat around him and began to crack
nuts for him and to laugh.

When Little Boy had finished his meal, he lay down and tried to go to
sleep, for it was pleasant and warm, and