, warm place to sleep in, for a time at
least, because she felt sure that when the snow came she would die, so
small and delicate and friendless was the dear little thing. When she
came to a great oak she sat down on an acorn cup, and tried to break
the hard shell of an acorn that she might nibble a bit for her dinner.
She could not do it, and sat thinking sadly what would become of her,
when a sweet acorn without its shell dropped into her lap, and, looking
up, she saw a gray squirrel peeping at her from a branch above her head.
She smiled, and thanked him, and he came down with a whisk to sit
opposite and look at her with his fine tail over his head like an
umbrella.

"I know you, little maid, and I'm glad you came here, for I can show you
a charming house for the winter. I heard you tell a field-mouse how
lonely you were, and I saw tears dropping just now as you sat here
thinking you had not a friend in the world," said Dart, as he nodded at
her and kindly cracked a chestnut to follow the acorn if she needed
more.

"Every one is very kind to me, but every one seems to go to sleep when
autumn comes; so I felt alone and sad, and expected to die in the snow.
But if I can find a cosey place to live in till spring I shall be very
glad, and will do anything I can to pay for it," answered Bud, much
comforted by her good dinner and a kind word.

"If you will help me get in my nuts and acorns and moss and leaves for
winter food and bedding, I will let you use the Kobolds' house till they
come. They are jolly little fellows, and they will allow you to stay,
and teach you to spin; for they spin all winter, and make lovely cloth
for the elves out of silkweed and thistle-down. Here is their house. I
hide it and take care of it while they are gone, and get it ready for
them in the autumn, as they come with the first snow."

While Dart spoke he had been clearing away a pile of dead leaves at the
foot of the old oak, and soon Bud saw an arched doorway leading into the
hollow trunk, where the roots made different chambers, and all was dry
and warm and cosey as a little house. She went in and looked about, well
pleased at what she saw, and very glad of such a comfortable home. She
hoped the Kobolds would let her stay, and set to work at once to help
Dart get ready for them; for the sky looked dark with snow, and a cold
wind rustled through the wood.

In one room they stored nuts and acorns, rose and holly berries, a dried
apple