o
stir his wits, and consider what was to be done. And when he had
considered awhile, he set off for the house of the Green Ogre, shaking
in his shoes.

The Green Ogre was planting peas, one by one. When he saw Wee-Wun come
along, with tears still on his cheeks and shaking in his shoes, he
said:

"My little gnome, you had better keep away, lest I plant you in
mistake for a pea."

But Wee-Wun said:

"Oh, dear Green Ogre, wouldn't you like a nice blue blow-away for your
garden? I have one which is quite big enough for you; it is taller
than my little house. You have never seen a blow-away so fine."

"And are you weeping, my Wee-Wun, because you have such a fine blue
blow-away?" asked the Green Ogre, and he began to laugh.

But Wee-Wun said:

"I am weeping to see such a fine garden as yours without a blue
blow-away in it. That is a sad sight."

"There is something in that," said the Green Ogre, and he set down his
peas, and thought. Then he said: "Very well, I will come and look at
your blue blow-away." And he set off at once.

Now when the Green Ogre saw the blue blow-away in Wee-Wun's garden he
thought it was certainly the best he had ever seen, and much too fine
for a little gnome like Wee-Wun. So he dug it up in a great hurry and
carried it away.

"There, that was managed very easily," said Wee-Wun the gnome joyously
to himself, and he looked at the hole where the blue blow-away had
been, and laughed. Then he went into his fine home, but that was no
longer empty, for in the seat by the fireside sat a little man in a
blue smock and feather cap. And he looked quite happy and at home. And
above his head on the mantel shelf were the little blue shoes, as
quiet as could be.

"This is a nice thing," said Wee-Wun, opening his eyes wide. "Who are
you that you have come into my little house where I like to sit all
alone?"

And the little man replied at once:

"I am the Hop-about Man, and since you have let the Green Ogre carry
away the blue blow-away in which I lived, I have come to live with
you."

"But my fine house is not big enough to hold two people," cried
Wee-Wun, and he was in a way.

"It is big enough to hold twelve tigers," said the Hop-about Man, "so
it can easily hold two little gnomes. As for me, here I am, and here I
mean to stay."

And not another word would he say. At this Wee-Wun was in a terrible
way, as you may think. But there was the Hop-about Man, and he did not
seem to care, not o