es, the tree man and his
sweetheart, the cows and the geese and all the marvels of the country,
yes, it was hard; but home is home, and always turns a smiling face to
us after a long absence. How nice to rediscover one's playthings and
dolls. Trudel's first thought was always for her doll babies, and she
would rush upstairs, and embrace each one tenderly.

As the children drove to the station from the farm, they passed the
famous oak-tree, but no little man was to be seen.

"He's shy of the coachman, of course," said the children.

Looking back, they caught a glimpse of him in the distance, and shouted
and waved their handkerchiefs.

Hermann and Fritz were very sorry to say "good-bye" to their little
friends; but school began the next day, and they would not have so much
time for play then.

The landlady told the children a great secret before they left. "The
Herr Baron is going to be married next week," she said.

"Well, I am glad," said mother. "I hope she is very nice," and the
children echoed the wish warmly.

"She has lots of money, and is a countess, I believe," continued the
landlady.

"Well, I do hope she does not object to smoking," said Trudel, and they
all laughed.

* * * * *

"Mother, you have never shown us your sketch," said Trudel during the
unpacking.

Mother laughed. "Where's Lottchen? I suppose she wants to see it too?"

"Here I am," said Lotty. "Oh, do be quick and show it to us!"

Mother held up the sketch. There was the hollow oak-tree, and standing
in it the little tree man himself just as the children had first seen
him, with his green peaked hood on.

"So mother really did see him too!" said the children.

Now this story disproves the common fallacy that only children can see
the fairies and forest folk; for how could mother have painted the tree
gnome unless she had seen him?

EVERETT AND CO. LTD., 42 ESSEX STREET, STRAND, LONDON

Transcriber's note

In the tale "The Engineer and the Dwarfs", a line is missing in
the original text; since this edition is apparently the only one in
existence, it has sadly not been possible to discover what the missing
section was. However, from the context it must be a greeting, perhaps
from the dwarfs' Committee.

Otherwise, missing punctuation has been silently added, and the spelling
of some names regularised. The word centuary was changed to centaury in
the sentence:

"Little harebells, and pink