e. But he could not do it. And worse than
that, he found he didn't really want to.

"Do you like to have your throat feel all pinched up, as if you
couldn't swallow a drop of honey?" the Earth-Woman asked him.

"No!" screamed Gillibloom. And then he roared louder than ever. You
could have heard him across twenty violets.

"Do you like to have your mouth all salt with tears, and your pretty
tunic wet with them?"

"No! No!" said Gillibloom.

But he kept on roaring.

"There, you see!" said the Earth-Woman. "Now I'll tell you something,
Gillibloom, and you keep it in your mind until you forget it. The more
you cry, the harder it is to stop, and the only way to stop crying is
to smile."

"Cry?" said Gillibloom. "Is this Quite Crying? Isn't it Almost
Crying?"

"That's as may be," said the Earth-Woman wisely. "Now you come in here
with me."

So she carried him into her hut, where it is very dark but light
enough to see to do all sorts of wonderful things, and she ironed out
his forehead and put a nice polish on it, and she opened his eyes and
told them to stay open, and she shut his mouth and told it to stay
shut, and when it had really done it, she stretched it very carefully
indeed, until it was perhaps two cat's hairs wider than it had been
for a long time.

"There!" said she, "I can't do any more until it softens a little. Lie
down there, Gillibloom, and think about leaves in spring."

So Gillibloom lay down on a very soft couch that was perhaps
rose-leaves and perhaps thistledown and perhaps cornsilk, and when he
had lain there a day and a night, the Earth-Woman stretched his mouth
a little more, and a little more. And one night she said to him: "Now,
Gillibloom, your cure will take quite a long time yet, but you must do
the rest of it yourself. And this is what you must do. Whenever you
think of crying, you must stretch your mouth just as wide as you can."

"Why, that's what the mortals call smiling," said Gillibloom.

"And you must keep on doing it until you've forgotten to cry. Now. I
wish you were in the fairy ring."

And she had no sooner said it than he was there. All the fairies were
dancing the new dance that is called, "Remember the Robins and Roses
To-day and Think of the Lilies and Larks." Now when they saw
Gillibloom standing there among them, balancing on one foot and trying
to look very bold and gay, they stopped dancing and half turned away,
and looked at him over their shoulders. If Gill