eat builder in a dusty brown cloak made it into a real house that
was packed with happiness.

It is a little difficult to believe that this is all true; but then, it
must be remembered that it all happened in Nonamia, ever so long ago!

[Illustration: THE WYMPS SAY THAT QUEER BEGAN IT]

Why the Wymps Cried

The wymps and the fairies have never been able to agree. Nobody quite
knows why, though the Fairy Queen, who is the wisest person in the
whole world, was once heard to say that jealousy had something to do
with it. The fairies say, however, that they would never dream of
being jealous of people who live at the back of the sun and do not know
manners; while the wymps say it would be absurd to be jealous of any
one who lives at the front of the sun and cannot take a joke. All the
same, the Fairy Queen is always right, so somebody must certainly be
jealous of somebody; and it is well known that if the wymps and the
fairies are invited to the same party, it is sure to end in a quarrel.
It is really a wonder that the Fairy Queen has not lost patience with
the wymps long ago; but people say that she has more affection for her
naughty little subjects at the back of the sun than any one would
imagine; and the Fairy Queen is so wonderful that it is quite possible
to believe this.

Once, matters became so serious that there would have been a real war,
if the Queen had not called an assembly of her subjects on the
spot--which happened to be on the roof of a blacksmith's forge--and
asked them what the fuss was all about.

"Please, your Majesty," said one fairy, half crying, "the wymps shut me
up at the back of the sun for fifteen days, and they gave me nothing to
eat, your Majesty; they said that if I couldn't take a joke I couldn't
take anything. And I should never _wish_ to take one of their jokes,
please your Majesty."

"Do not trouble about that," said the Fairy Queen, gravely. "For my
part, I shall never expect you to take a joke from any one. Now,
Capricious, what have they done to you?" she added, as another fairy
with a round dimpled face came forward in a great hurry.

"Please, your Majesty," began Capricious, trying to make a very
cheerful voice sound extremely doleful, "I found a wymp in the nursery,
after the children had gone to bed; and he was quite upset because the
Wymp King had made a joke and no one could see it; and he asked me to
go behind the sun with him, so that I might help him