as
careless as he could be.

[Footnote 11: _From Little Folks' Magazine_. By permission of Messrs
Cassell & Co., Ltd.]

One day Wee-Wun was flying across the Bye-bye Meadow, with his cap at
the back of his head, and his pockets full of blue blow-away seeds,
when he saw lying upon the ground two little shoes of blue and silver,
with upturned toes.

"Here is a find!" cried he, and he bent down over the little shoes
with round eyes.

There they were, and they said nothing about how they had come there,
but lay sadly on their sides, as silent as could be.

"I shall certainly take them home to my fine house," said Wee-Wun the
gnome, "for they must be lonely lying here. They shall stand upon my
mantel shelf, and every morning I shall say, 'Good-morning, little
blue shoes,' and every night I shall say, 'Good-night,' and we shall
all be as happy as can be."

So he went to put the little shoes into his pockets, but he found they
were already full of blue blow-away seeds.

Then Wee-Wun took the blue blow-away seeds, and cast them over the
wall into the Stir-about Wife's garden. And he put the little shoes
into his pocket, and flew away.

The garden of the Stir-about Wife is full of golden dandelions. That
is because the Stir-about Wife likes best to brew golden spells that
will make folk happy, and of course dandelions are the flowers you use
for golden spells.

But the very next day after Wee-Wun had passed, when she came into her
garden to gather every twentieth dandelion she could hardly see a
dandelion because of the blow-aways that were growing everywhere, and
casting their fluff into the dandelions' eyes.

When the Stir-about Wife saw this mournful sight she wept, because
her beautiful spell, which she was about to finish, was quite spoiled.
And after a little while she went into her house and made another
spell instead.

On the morrow Wee-Wun the gnome came flying over the Bye-bye Meadow,
just as careless as ever. He stopped for a moment by the Stir-about
Wife's garden to look at the spot where he had found the little blue
shoes, to see if there were another pair there. And after he had seen
that no one had dropped another pair of little blue shoes, he hung
over the Stir-about Wife's wall and looked at her garden, and when he
saw the blue blow-aways he laughed so that he fell upon the ground.

"That is a new kind of dandelion," said he, and he picked himself up,
laughing still. Then he saw that upon the g