house, so I will hide them away
for you. Give me your little useless hands."

Wondering, Elsa stretched out her pretty, little, white hands.

"Now stretch out your little useless fingers, dear!"

Elsa stretched out her pretty pink fingers.

The gray man touched each one of the ten little fingers, and as he
touched them he said their names: "Little Thumb; Fore-finger;
Thimble-finger; Ring-finger; Little Finger; Little Thumb; Forefinger;
Thimble-finger; Ring-finger; Little Finger!" And as he named the
fingers, one after another, the tiny fairies bowed their tiny heads;
there was a fairy for every name.

"Hop! hide yourselves away!" said the gray man.

Hop, hop! The fairies sprang to Elsa's knee, then to the palms of her
hands, and then-whisk! they were all hidden away in her little pink
fingers, a fairy in every finger! And the gray man was gone.

Elsa sat and looked with wonder at her little white hands and the ten
useless fingers. But suddenly the little fingers began to stir. The
tiny fairies who were hidden away there weren't used to staying still,
and they were getting restless. They stirred so that Elsa jumped up and
ran to the cooking table, and took hold of the bread board. No sooner
had she touched the bread board than the little fairies began to work:
they measured the flour, mixed the bread, kneaded the loaves, and set
them to rise, quicker than you could wink; and when the bread was done,
it was the nicest you could wish. Then the little fairy-fingers seized
the broom, and in a twinkling they were making the house clean. And so
it went, all day. Elsa flew about from one thing to another, and the
ten fairies did it all, just right.

When the maid saw her mistress working, she began to work, too; and
when she saw how beautifully everything was done, she was ashamed to do
anything badly herself. In a little while the housework was going
smoothly, and Elsa could laugh and sing again.

There was no more crossness in that house. Elsa's husband grew so
proud of her that he went about saying to everybody, "My grandmother
was a fine housekeeper, and my mother was a fine housekeeper, but
neither of them could hold a candle to my wife. She has only one maid,
but, to see the work done, you would think she had as many servants as
she has fingers on her hands!"

When Elsa heard that, she used to laugh, but she never, never told.

THE ELVES AND THE SHOEMAKER

Once upon a time there was an hones