sed yet to the dim light; but he was sure those
things were not birds,--no. He poked them, and they took no notice;
but when he snatched one of them out of the nest, it gave a loud
squeak, and said, "O don't, Jack!" as plainly as possible, upon which
he was so frightened that he lost his footing, dropped the thing, and
slipped down himself. Luckily, he was not hurt, nor the thing either;
he could see it quite plainly now: it was creeping about like rather
an old baby, and had on a little frock and pinafore.

"It's a fairy!" exclaimed Jack to himself. "How curious! and this must
be a fairy's nest. Oh, how angry the old mother will be if this little
thing creeps away and gets out of the hole!" So he looked down. "Oh,
the hole is on the other side," he said; and he turned round, but the
hole was not on the other side; it was not on any side; it must have
closed up all on a sudden, while he was looking into the nest, for,
look whichever way he would, there was no hole at all, excepting a
very little one high up over the nest, which let in a very small
sunbeam.

Jack was very much astonished, but he went on eating his cake, and was
so delighted to see the young fairy climb up the side of the hollow
and scramble again into her nest, that he laughed heartily; upon which
all the nestlings popped up their heads, and, showing their pretty
white teeth, pointed at the slice of cake.

"Well," said Jack, "I may have to stay inside here for a long time,
and I have nothing to eat but this cake; however, your mouths are very
small, so you shall have a piece;" and he broke off a small piece, and
put it into the nest, climbing up to see them eat it.

These young fairies were a long time dividing and munching the cake,
and before they had finished, it began to be rather dark, for a black
cloud came over and covered the little sunbeam. At the same time the
wind rose, and rocked the boughs, and made the old tree creak and
tremble. Then there was thunder and rain, and the little fairies were
so frightened that they got out of the nest and crept into Jack's
pockets. One got into each waistcoat pocket, and the other two were
very comfortable, for he took out his handkerchief and made room for
them in the pocket of his jacket.

It got darker and darker, till at last Jack could only just see the
hole, and it seemed to be a very long way off. Every time he looked at
it, it was farther off, and at last he saw a thin crescent moon
shining thro