y were all so small; and when she
had explained the matter to them, and to the people who filled the
house, they understood it all. They were filled with joy to have their
daughter back again, little or big.

When the Condensed Pirate went to his house, he found the door locked,
as he had left it, but he easily crawled in through a crack. He found
everything of an enormous size. It did not look like the old place. He
climbed up the leg of a chair and got on a table, by the help of the
tablecloth, but it was hard work. He found something to eat and drink,
and all his possessions were in order, but he did not feel at home.

Days passed on, and while the Condensed Pirate did not feel any better
satisfied, a sadness seemed to spread over the country, and
particularly over Corette's home. The people grieved that they never
saw the fairy sisters, who indeed had made two or three visits, with
infinite trouble and toil, but who could not make themselves observed,
their bodies and their voices being so very small.

And Corette's father and mother grieved. They wanted their daughter to
be as she was before. They said that Sweet Marjoram Day was very near,
but that they could not look forward to it with pleasure. Corette might
go out to the fields, but she could only sit upon some high place, as
the fairies used to sit. She could not help in the gathering. She could
not even be with the babies; they would roll on her and crush her. So
they mourned.

It was now the night before the great holiday. Sweet Marjoram Eve had
not been a very gay time, and the people did not expect to have much
fun the next day. How could they if the fairy sisters did not come?
Corette felt badly, for she had never told that the sisters had been
condensed, and the Condensed Pirate, who had insisted on her secrecy,
felt worse. That night he lay in his great bed, really afraid to go to
sleep on account of rats and mice.

He was so extremely wakeful that he lay and thought, and thought, and
thought for a long time, and then he got up and dressed and went out.

It was a beautiful moonlight night, and he made his way directly to
Corette's house. There, by means of a vine, he climbed up to her
window, and gently called her. She was not sleeping well, and she soon
heard him and came to the window.

He then asked her to bring him two spools of fine thread.

Without asking any questions, she went for the thread, and very soon
made her appearance at the win