"it's dirty; at least, it's not new."

"No, it's not new," said Jack, a good deal surprised, "but it is a
good sixpence."

"The bees don't like it," continued the little woman. "They like
things to be neat and new, and that sixpence is bent."

"What shall I give you then?" said Jack.

The good little woman laughed and blushed. "This young gentleman has a
beautiful whistle round his neck," she observed, politely, but did not
ask for it.

Jack had a dog-whistle, so he took it off and gave it to her.

"Thank you for the bees," she said. "They love to be called home when
we've collected flowers for them."

So she made a pretty little courtesy, and went away to her customers.

There were some very strange creatures also, about the same height as
Jack, who had no tents, and seemed there to buy, not to sell. Yet they
looked poorer than the other folks, and they were also very cross and
discontented; nothing pleased them. Their clothes were made of moss,
and their mantles of feathers; and they talked in a queer whistling
tone of voice, and carried their skinny little children on their backs
and on their shoulders.

They were treated with great respect by the people in the tents; and
when Jack asked his friend to whom he had given the whistle what they
were, and where they got so much money as they had, she replied that
they lived over the hills, and were afraid to come in their best
clothes. They were rich and powerful at home, and they came shabbily
dressed, and behaved humbly, lest their enemies should envy them. It
was very dangerous, she said, to fairies to be envied.

Jack wanted to listen to their strange whistling talk, but he could
not for the noise and cheerful chattering of the brown folks, and more
still for the screaming and talking of parrots.

Among the goods were hundreds of splendid gilt cages, which were hung
by long gold chains from the trees. Each cage contained a parrot and
his mate, and they all seemed to be very unhappy indeed.

The parrots could talk, and they kept screaming to the discontented
women to buy things for them, and trying very hard to attract
attention.

One old parrot made himself quite conspicuous by these efforts. He
flung himself against the wires of his cage, he squalled, he screamed,
he knocked the floor with his beak, till Jack and one of the customers
came running up to see what was the matter.

"What do you make such a fuss for?" cried the discontented woman.
"You'