eager
was she to tell the story. She woke up Childe Charity's rich uncle
before cock-crow. But when he heard it, he laughed at her for a foolish
woman, and advised her not to repeat the like before her neighbours,
lest they should think she had lost her senses.

The mistress could say no more, and the day passed. But that night the
master thought he would like to see what went on in the garret. So when
all the house were asleep he slipped out of bed, and set himself to
watch at the hole in the door. The same thing happened again that the
maid and the mistress saw. The little men in crimson with their torches,
and the little ladies in rose-coloured velvet with their lamps, came in
at the window and bowed low to the dog, the one saying, "Royal Prince,
we have prepared the presents," and the other, "Royal Prince, we have
prepared the jewels."

The dog said to them all: "You have done well. To-morrow, come and meet
me and the Princess with horses and chariots, and let all things be done
in the best way. For we will bring a stranger from this house who has
never travelled with us, nor feasted in our halls before."

The little men and the little ladies said: "Your Highness's commands
shall be obeyed."

When they had gone out through the window, the ugly dog stretched
himself out on the straw, Childe Charity turned in her sleep, and the
moon shone in on the back garret.

The master could not close his eyes any more than the maid or the
mistress. He remembered to have heard his grandfather say, that
somewhere near his meadows there lay a path leading to the fairies'
country, and the haymakers used to see it shining through the grey
summer morning, as the fairy bands went home.

Nobody had heard or seen the like for many years; but the master thought
that the doings in his back garret must be a fairy business, and the
ugly dog a person of great account. His chief wonder was, however, what
visitor the fairies intended to take from his house; and after thinking
the matter over, he was sure it must be one of his daughters--they were
so handsome, and had such fine clothes.

So Childe Charity's rich uncle made it his first business that morning
to get ready a breakfast of roast mutton for the ugly dog, and carry it
to him in the cow-house. But not a morsel would the dog taste.

"The fairies have strange ways," said the master to himself. But he
called his daughters and bade them dress themselves in their best, for
he could