ds and
on their grassy carpets, to think that within the same moonlight lies a
dirty, uncomfortable, slovenly house. And this makes them angry with
the people that live in it, and they would gladly drive them out of the
world if they could. They want the whole earth nice and clean. So they
pinch the maids black and blue, and play them all manner of
uncomfortable tricks.

But this house was quite a shame, and the fairies in the forest could
not endure it. They tried everything on the maids without effect, and
at last resolved upon making a clean riddance, beginning with the
child. They ought to have known that it was not her fault, but they
have little principle and much mischief in them, and they thought that
if they got rid of her the maids would be sure to be turned away.

So one evening, the poor little girl having been put to bed early,
before the sun was down, the servants went off to the village, locking
the door behind them. The child did not know she was alone, and lay
contentedly looking out of her window towards the forest, of which,
however, she could not see much, because of the ivy and other creeping
plants which had straggled across her window. All at once she saw an
ape making faces at her out of the mirror, and the heads carved upon a
great old wardrobe grinning fearfully. Then two old spider-legged
chairs came forward into the middle of the room, and began to dance a
queer, old-fashioned dance. This set her laughing, and she forgot the
ape and the grinning heads. So the fairies saw they had made a mistake,
and sent the chairs back to their places. But they knew that she had
been reading the story of Silverhair all day. So the next moment she
heard the voices of the three bears upon the stair, big voice, middle
voice, and little voice, and she heard their soft, heavy tread, as if
they had had stockings over their boots, coming nearer and nearer to
the door of her room, till she could bear it no longer. She did just as
Silverhair did, and as the fairies wanted her to do: she darted to the
window, pulled it open, got upon the ivy, and so scrambled to the
ground. She then fled to the forest as fast as she could run.

Now, although she did not know it, this was the very best way she could
have gone; for nothing is ever so mischievous in its own place as it is
out of it; and, besides, these mischievous creatures were only the
children of Fairyland, as it were, and there are many other beings
there as well;