ith
great delight, for it is always a delight to watch the little folks at
their sports.

[Illustration: Dame Margery Twist goeth to see the merry doings at the
Fair.]

After a while she saw where one of the tiny fairy children hid himself
under a leaf, while the others who were to seek him looked up and down,
and high and low, but could find him nowhere. Then the old dame laughed
and laughed to see how the others looked for the little fellow, but
could not tell where he was. At last she could hold her peace no longer,
but called out in a loud voice, "Look under the leaf, Blackcap!"

The words were no sooner out of her mouth than, whisk! whirr! off they
scampered out of the garden and away--fathers, mothers, children,
babies, all crying in their shrill voices, "She sees us! she sees us!"
For fairies are very timid folk, and dread nothing more than to have
mortals see them in their own shapes.

So they never came back again to the dame's garden, and from that day to
this her tulips have been like everybody else's tulips. Moreover,
whenever she went out the fairies scampered away before her like so many
mice, for they all knew that she could see them with her magical eye.
This, as you may see, was bad enough, but no other harm would have come
of it if she had only gathered wisdom at that time, seeing what ill came
of her speech. But, like many other old dames that I wot of, no sound
was so pleasant to her ears as the words of her own mouth.

Now, about a twelvemonth after the time that the dame had nursed the
fairy lady, the great fair was held at Tavistock. All the world and his
wife were there, so, of course, Dame Margery went also. And the fair was
well worth going to, I can tell you! Booths stood along in a row in the
yellow sunlight of the summer-time, and flags and streamers of many
colors fluttered in the breeze from long poles at the end of each booth.
Ale flowed like water, and dancing was going on on the green, for Peter
Weeks the piper was there, and his pipes were with him. It was a fine
sight to see all of the youths and maids, decked in fine ribbons of pink
and blue, dancing hand-in-hand to his piping. In the great tent the
country people had spread out their goods--butter, cheese, eggs, honey,
and the like--making as goodly a show as you would want to see. Dame
Margery was in her glory, for she had people to gossip with everywhere;
so she went hither and thither, and at last into the great tent where