or two, and many pine cones to burn; for Dart showed her a little
fireplace, and told her the Kobolds kept themselves very warm and jolly
at their work. In another room they spread moss and dry grass for beds,
and there the seven little men would sleep like dormice. The empty
cocoon of a caterpillar still hung in one corner, and Bud said that
should be her hammock with a curtain made of woven yellow bindweed hung
before the nook. They swept the floor with fir-needle brooms, and spread
a carpet of red oak leaves, which gave a very gay air to the place. Then
Dart left Bud to fill a row of acorn cups with water from a spring near
by, while he ran off to nibble splinters from the pitch pines to make
torches for the Kobolds, who worked in the evening and needed light.

Bud was as happy as a little girl with a new baby-house, and looked like
a tiny doll herself as she bustled to and fro, filling her tubs, dusting
her pretty rooms, and getting ready for the seven strangers, like
Snowdrop and the dwarfs in the dear old fairy tale. All was ready in two
days, and Dart had time to lay up his own stores before the snow came.
Bud watched over the heaps of nuts he piled lest his sly neighbors
should steal them while he ran up and down tucking them away in holes
about the oak-tree. This helped him much, and he was very fond of her;
and together they got up a nice surprise for the Kobolds by putting in
new beds for them made of chestnut burrs, which rocked on their outside
prickles like cradles, and were lined with down as soft as silk.

"That will tickle them," said Dart; "and when they know that you thought
of it, they will like you as much as I do. Now rest a bit, and be ready
to welcome them, for I'm sure they will come to-day. I'll run to the
tree-top and look out for them, so you can light the fire when I give
the word."

Dart whisked away, and Bud stood in the doorway, with a warm mat of
hemlock sprigs under her feet, and a garland of evergreen overhead; for
she had trimmed up the arch, and stuck bits of gay holly all about to
welcome the little men. Soon snow-flakes began to flutter down, and Bud
rejoiced that she had a nice, warm home to stay in, instead of freezing
to death like a lost bird. Suddenly Dart called from the tree-top, "They
are coming!" and hurried down to rub two sticks together till a spark
flew out and set the pine cone on the hearth ablaze. "Run to the door
and courtesy when you see them," he said, fanning t