ly they wondered how they ever got on without a maid
before. She was not at all afraid of them now; for they were jolly
little fellows, with fat bodies, thin legs, rosy faces, and sharp eyes.
All were dressed in white down suits, and wore droll pointed hats made
of some seed pod, and boots of magic stuff which carried them great
distances as if blown by the wind.

They liked their supper very much, and ate and drank and chatted
pleasantly till all were done; then they sat round the fire and smoked
sweet fern in Indian pipes till Bud had cleared away.

"Now come and sing to us," they said; and the youngest Kobold politely
set a stool in the warmest corner for her.

So Bud sang all her gayest songs to their great delight, and told her
adventures; and all were very cosey till it was time to sleep. The
little men were charmed with their new beds, and pulling poppy-pod
nightcaps over their heads tumbled in with drowsy good-nights, leaving
Bud to cover up the fire, shut the front door, and put out the lights.
Soon she was in her own soft hammock; and nothing broke the silence but
the sigh of the wind, the tap of falling snow-flakes on dry leaves
outside, and seven little snores inside, as the tired Kobolds dreamed
cosily in their new beds.

Bud was up early next day, and had everything ready when the little men
came out to breakfast. After it they set their wheels whirling, and all
day long they spun busily till many skeins of shining silk were ready to
be woven into elfin cloth. Bud soon learned, and they made her a wheel;
so she could work with them. They seldom spoke, and never ate nor
stopped till night; then the wheels stood still, and the spinners went
out for a run while Bud got supper.

In the evening they went coasting if it was moonlight, or owl-hunting,
and had gay times in the wood, whisking Bud with them, or sliding down
hillocks of snow on their sleds of bark, while Dart looked on, well
wrapped up in his gray fur coat.

But stormy nights they sat at home, and told stories and played games,
and were very merry, and Bud learned many wise and interesting things;
for the Kobolds knew all kinds of fairies, nixies, goblins, and spirits,
and had been in many lands.

It was very pleasant; but when the last month of winter came Bud began
to be so sleepy she could not keep her eyes open, and sat nodding as she
spun, gaping instead of singing, and was often found dreaming in her bed
when she should have been up and