e air. And then Maimie
went and spoiled everything.

She could n't help it. She was crazy with delight over her little
friend's good fortune, so she took several steps forward and cried in
an ecstasy, 'O Brownie, how splendid!'

Everybody stood still, the music ceased, the lights went out, and all
in the time you may take to say, 'Oh dear!' An awful sense of her
peril came upon Maimie; too late she remembered that she was a lost
child in a place where no human must be between the locking and the
opening of the gates; she heard the murmur of an angry multitude; she
saw a thousand swords flashing for her blood, and she uttered a cry of
terror and fled.

How she ran! and all the time her eyes were starting out of her head.
Many times she lay down, and then quickly jumped up and ran on again.
Her little mind was so entangled in terrors that she no longer knew she
was in the Gardens. The one thing she was sure of was that she must
never cease to run, and she thought she was still running long after
she had dropped in the Figs and gone to sleep. She thought the
snowflakes falling on her face were her mother kissing her good-night.
She thought her coverlet of snow was a warm blanket, and tried to pull
it over her head. And when she heard talking through her dreams she
thought it was mother bringing father to the nursery door to look at
her as she slept. But it was the fairies.

I am very glad to be able to say that they no longer desired to
mischief her. When she rushed away they had rent the air with such
cries as 'Slay her!' 'Turn her into something extremely unpleasant!'
and so on, but the pursuit was delayed while they discussed who should
march in front, and this gave Duchess Brownie time to cast herself
before the Queen and demand a boon.

Every bride has a right to a boon, and what she asked for was Maimie's
life. 'Anything except that,' replied Queen Mab sternly, and all the
fairies echoed, 'Anything except that.' But when they learned how
Maimie had befriended Brownie and so enabled her to attend the ball to
their great glory and renown, they gave three huzzas for the little
human, and set off, like an army, to thank her, the court advancing in
front and the canopy keeping step with it. They traced Maimie easily
by her footprints in the snow.

But though they found her deep in snow in the Figs, it seemed
impossible to thank Maimie, for they could not waken her. They went
through the form of thankin