overheard by a fairy who had been gathering skeleton leaves, from which
the little people weave their summer curtains, and after that Tony was
a marked boy. They loosened the rails before he sat on them, so that
down he came on the back of his head; they tripped him up by catching
his bootlace, and bribed the ducks to sink his boat. Nearly all the
nasty accidents you meet with in the Gardens occur because the fairies
have taken an ill-will to you, and so it behoves you to be careful what
you say about them.

Maimie was one of the kind who like to fix a day for doing things, but
Tony was not that kind, and when she asked him which day he was to
remain behind in the Gardens after Lock-out he merely replied, 'Just
some day'; he was quite vague about which day except when she asked,
'Will it be to-day?' and then he could always say for certain that it
would not be to-day. So she saw that he was waiting for a real good
chance.

This brings us to an afternoon when the Gardens were white with snow,
and there was ice on the Round Pond; not thick enough to skate on, but
at least you could spoil it for to-morrow by flinging stones, and many
bright little boys and girls were doing that.

When Tony and his sister arrived they wanted to go straight to the
pond, but their ayah said they must take a sharp walk first, and as she
said this she glanced at the time-board to see when the Gardens closed
that night. It read half-past five. Poor ayah! she is the one who
laughs continuously because there are so many white children in the
world, but she was not to laugh much more that day.

Well, they went up the Baby Walk and back, and when they returned to
the time-board she was surprised to see that it now read five o'clock
for closing-time. But she was unacquainted with the tricky ways of the
fairies, and so did not see (as Maimie and Tony saw at once) that they
had changed the hour because there was to be a ball to-night. She said
there was only time now to walk to the top of the Hump and back, and as
they trotted along with her she little guessed what was thrilling their
little breasts. You see the chance had come of seeing a fairy ball.
Never, Tony felt, could he hope for a better chance.

He had to feel this for Maimie so plainly felt it for him. Her eager
eyes asked the question, 'Is it to-day?' and he gasped and then nodded.
Maimie slipped her hand into Tony's, and hers was hot, but his was
cold. She did a very kind th