Part 2

While she was wondering about it the knock sounded again, and without stopping to think any more she jumped up and ran to the door and opened it, not very wide, and looked down at the shoes.

“It’s herself, brother Nibby,” said a voice in the doorway.

“So it is, brother Malkin, so it is,” said the other voice.

“Why, it’s the two gnomes!” cried Merrimeg. “But where are you?”

“She can’t see us, of course,” said the first voice.

“No, of course not,” said the second voice. “I forgot that.”

“If you’re there,” said Merrimeg, “come in!” and she opened the door wide.

The two pairs of shoes stepped into the room, and stood with their toes towards Merrimeg.

“Do you suppose she’ll be willing to help us?” said the voice of Malkin the gnome.

“Just what I’m wondering, brother,” said the voice of Nibby.

“Of course I’ll help you!” said Merrimeg. “What’s the matter?”

“She’s pretty good to-day,” said Malkin’s voice.

“I can see that, brother,” said Nibby’s voice.

“I can’t see anything at all!” cried Merrimeg. “Where _are_ you, anyway? Are you _here_, or where?”

“Of course she doesn’t know what the witch has done to us,” said the voice of Malkin.

“No, she doesn’t know that the witch has taken away our bodies,” said the voice of Nibby.

“And we want to get them back,” said Malkin’s voice.

“And we want her to help us,” said Nibby’s voice.

“It’s a frightful nuisance being without a body,” said Malkin’s voice.

“She ought to know that without being told, I should think,” said Nibby’s voice.

“How can I help you?” said Merrimeg. “I’ll do anything I can.”

“She isn’t cross at all to-day,” said Malkin’s voice.

“No, it’s Sunday,” said Nibby’s voice.

“She’d better come along with us at once, then,” said Malkin’s voice.

“Yes,” said Nibby’s voice, “they’ll throw our bodies down the well if we don’t hurry.”

“Suppose you tell her, then.”

“Oh, no, brother, _you’re_ the one to tell her.”

“Oh dear no, brother Nibby, _you_ are the one to----”

“I’ll come!” said Merrimeg. “Never mind telling me. Go ahead, and I’ll follow you!”

The two pairs of wooden shoes turned and went out of the open door, and Merrimeg followed them as they went clop-clopping down the street.

They left the village and went into the woods. They found a path which Merrimeg had never seen before, and they walked along this path, under the trees and bushes, and across little streams, for a long, long time; and the woods grew thicker and thicker, so that at last they could not see the sun, and it was very dark; and all the while the two pairs of little shoes went on before, and Merrimeg followed behind.

“I suppose we’d better tell her the right word now,” said the voice of Malkin, “before we meet old Verbum Sap.”

“Yes, before we meet old Sappy,” said Nibby’s voice.

“Dear me!” said Malkin’s voice. “Blest if I haven’t forgotten the word myself!”

“Oh, mercy on us, whatever will we do now?” said Nibby’s voice.

“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Malkin’s voice. “If I could only remember the word! Isn’t it something like _cat-tails_?”

“No, no, brother, nothing like that!”

“Can’t _you_ remember the word, brother Nibby?”

“Oh, _me_? Oh dear yes, brother, I know what the word is. But _you’ve_ forgotten it, brother Malkin! Whatever shall we do now? We’ll never get our bodies back without the word, never, never!”

“But don’t _you_ know what it is, brother Nibby?”

“Oh yes, brother Malkin, but what good will that do, if _you_ don’t know what it is?”

“That’s so, that’s so. I never thought of that. Oh dear me, I’m sure I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”

Merrimeg very nearly lost all patience at this.

“Why don’t you _tell_ him what it is, then?” she said.

“I do hope she isn’t going to be cross,” said Malkin’s voice. “But anyway, that’s a pretty good idea. Suppose you _tell_ me what the word is? Isn’t it something like _cat-tails_?”

“Nothing like that, brother, nothing like that!”

“What _is_ it, then?”

“It’s _kitten-tails_!”

“Then we’d better tell her now, before old Sappy comes up, so she’ll know the word.”

“Which one of us had better tell her?”

“I think _you_ should be the one to tell her, brother Nibby----”

“Oh bother!” said Merrimeg. “I _know_ what the word is now. It’s kitten-tails.”

“She’s getting cross, she’s getting cross, brother Nibby,” said Malkin’s voice. “Do you think we’d better go back?”

“I’m not cross,” said Merrimeg. “Please excuse me. I won’t speak so any more.”

“I believe it’s all right, brother Nibby,” said Malkin’s voice. “Now you’d better tell her about the word. Whatever they say to her, she must use that word, and she mustn’t use any other; tell her that, brother Nibby. She mustn’t say anything else to them, because if she does they’ll take her body away from her too, and we’ll never get our bodies back; tell her that, brother Nibby. And we mustn’t speak at all, because that would spoil everything. And whatever she does, she mustn’t let them take her shoes off. Tell her, brother.”

“Excuse me,” said Merrimeg, very politely, “I heard what you said, so he needn’t tell me, if you please.”

“Now that’s what I call very clever of her,” said Malkin’s voice.

“Very, very,” said Nibby’s voice.

In a few minutes they came to a place where the vines and brambles hung down so low over the path that Merrimeg had to crawl on her hands and knees; and just then Malkin said, in a very low voice:

“There’s old Sappy.”

Right in the middle of the path before them stood a great gray owl, staring at them with his big round eyes. The shoes stopped still, and Merrimeg sat up on her heels. The owl seemed to be staring straight at her. He opened his beak, and a hoarse voice came out of his mouth, sounding as if he had a bad cold, and the voice said:

“What do you want here, child?”

“Kitten-tails,” said Merrimeg, remembering that she wasn’t on any account to say anything else.

The owl ruffled his feathers and winked one of his eyes, very slowly. He stared at Merrimeg for a moment, then he turned around and walked off down the path before them. The wooden shoes stepped along after him, and Merrimeg followed on her hands and knees.

Old Sappy, if that was his name, led them a long way under the vines and brambles, and stopped at the end of the path before a green wall of leaves, very tall, made of vines matted thick together. At the bottom of this leafy wall was a little opening, and after looking behind him for a moment old Sappy went in, and after him stepped the two pairs of shoes, and last of all in crawled Merrimeg.

When she was inside, she stood up. She was standing on a floor which looked like green marble, very hard and shiny, and as she moved her feet on it her shoes began to pinch her feet painfully. All around her, in a circle, was the high wall of green leaves, and overhead the branches of the trees hung down, making a green roof.

On one of these branches was perched a great black ugly bird, very like a buzzard. Its little sharp eyes were looking hard at Merrimeg.

Around the walls, on the ground, was a row of gray owls,--dozens of them, all staring at Merrimeg with their big round eyes.

In the middle of the floor was a dark opening, like the mouth of a well; and alongside of it were lying the bodies of the two gnomes, on their backs, with their eyes closed. They had no shoes on their feet. The two pairs of wooden shoes walked across the floor and stood beside the bodies.

Old Sappy stopped beside the well and looked up at the ugly black bird over his head, and ruffled his feathers as if he were shivering.

The bird overhead perked its head down side-wise, and gave a croak and said:

“It’s nearly time!”

“Time for what? Time for what?” croaked all the owls together.

“Time to put the bodies in the well!” said the ugly bird.

“What shall we do first?” said the owls together.

“Get me another body for the well!” said the bird overhead.

“There are only two bodies!” sang out the owls.

“I see another, I see another!” said the bird on the branch.

Then the bird in the tree began to croak and grumble to itself, and old Sappy stared at Merrimeg and said:

“What must she do?”

“She must come to the well!” said all the owls together.

“How must she come?”

“She must walk! She must walk!”

“Who’ll take off her shoes?” said old Sappy.

“We will, we will!” cried all the owls together, and they all ran towards her, opening their beaks and squawking as they crowded in around her feet.

But Merrimeg kicked out right and left and scattered them in every direction. She found herself standing before the well and the ugly black bird overhead gave an angry screech.

“What shall we do with her?” said old Sappy.

“The riddle! The riddle!” screamed the ugly black bird overhead.

“The riddle! The riddle!” sang out all the owls together.

“Answer the riddle!” said old Sappy. But as he said it he gave a slow wink with his right eye. “Answer the riddle, and answer it right! Or else,--or else,--off come your shoes, off come your shoes!”

“What is the riddle?” cried all the owls.

“This is the riddle, and answer it right,” said old Sappy. “What is it that has no feet and runs away on four feet and is chased by the same four feet, and lives on food and drink and never eats nor drinks?”

“What is it? What is it?” croaked all the owls.

“Kitten-tails!” said Merrimeg, sobbing with fright as she said it.

The black bird overhead gave a piercing scream, spread its wings, and tried to fly away. But before it could fly, while it was flapping and struggling, a change came over it, and in its place was a horrible little old woman, hanging on to the branch and kicking and screaming, and trying to keep from falling down out of the tree. She was much heavier than the bird had been, and the branch was not strong enough to bear her; it snapped in half under her, and down she fell, still kicking, directly into the opening of the well. She was gone.

Merrimeg heard a splash far down in the well, and at the same time the green walls disappeared, and the well-opening was covered over, and the green marble floor turned into soft green moss, raised in the middle like a roof, and the owls flew away among the trees.

Merrimeg looked down at the bodies of the two gnomes, lying on the bright green moss. One of them opened his eyes and yawned and stretched his arms; and the other yawned and stretched his arms and opened his eyes; and they both got up together, and looked down at their feet.

“I suppose we’d better put on our shoes,” said one of them.

“I suppose we had, brother,” said the other one.

They put on their wooden shoes quickly, and then they noticed Merrimeg.

“Oh, yes,” said one of the gnomes, “I remember everything now. Brother Nibby, we ought to thank her for helping us get our bodies back.”

“That we ought, brother, that we ought, indeed,” said Nibby.

“Which one of us should tell her?” said Malkin.

“I think you could do it much better,” said Nibby. “You’re always so clever.”

“Please don’t bother about thanking me,” said Merrimeg. “I’m so glad I could help you.”

“Really, she isn’t rude at all to-day,” said Malkin.

“Not a bit, brother Malkin, not a bit,” said Nibby.

“Then we’d better go home,” said Malkin. “Why, bless me, we’re home right now! This is the roof of our own house!”

“Now it’s queer I didn’t notice that before,” said Nibby. “How you do notice everything, brother!”

“Good-by,” said Merrimeg. “I must get home before mother comes back from church. Good-by.”

“Brother Nibby,” said Malkin, “will you ask her to stay and have dinner with us in our own house?”

“I’m sorry,” said Merrimeg, “but I can’t stay now. Thank you ever so much. I must hurry home. Good-by.”

She didn’t wait for an answer. Away she ran, and it wasn’t very long before she was in the village street again. In a few minutes she was sitting quietly at the front window of her house with the picture book on her knee, and there she was sitting when her mother came home from church.

“That’s what I call a good little girl,” said her mother, “--sitting there quietly with your book, just as I left you.”

“Yes’m,” said Merrimeg.

_MERRIMEG AND THE STARLIGHT FAIRIES_

Merrimeg was asleep in her little bed, and Merrimeg’s mother was asleep in her big bed.

It was late at night, and everybody in the village was asleep. All the houses were dark, and the stars were shining overhead.

Merrimeg woke up, and listened. She thought she heard a sound as if someone were crying.

She got up out of bed in her white nightgown, and tiptoed over to her mother and looked at her. Her mother was fast asleep, but she still heard the sound of crying.

She decided that it must be outside in the street, so she opened the front door and peeped out.

In the street before the door were three beautiful children, and one of them was crying.

They were all of about the same size as Merrimeg, and they were dressed in long dark blue gowns, fine as spider webs, which rippled around them in the cool air. They were barefoot and bareheaded. Each one had long black hair streaming down to her waist, and a pair of great wide wings standing out straight from her shoulders, like the wings of an enormous butterfly, all blue and silver.

One of the children had her arms about the one who was crying. They all looked up at Merrimeg as she opened the door.

“You’re Merrimeg, aren’t you?” said the one who had her arms about the other.

Merrimeg stepped out into the street under the stars.

“Yes,” said she. “What is she crying about? Are you lost?”

“You’d--better--tell her--who we are, Pennie,” said the one who had been crying, choking back her sobs.

“We aren’t lost,” said the one who hadn’t yet spoken. “We’re looking for our star.”

“We’ve lost it,” said the one who had been crying, breaking out into sobs again.

“Don’t cry, Winnie,” said the one who had her arms about her. “She’ll help us find it, I know she will.”

“Why is she crying?” said Merrimeg again.

“She’s Winnie, and I’m Florrie,” said the one who had just spoken, “and this one’s Pennie. Don’t you know who we are?”

“No,” said Merrimeg.

“We’re the starlight fairies,” said Florrie. “_Now_ do you know?”

“No,” said Merrimeg.

“I thought everybody knew,” said Florrie. “Every evening at dark we fly along the sky up there and hang out the stars. Haven’t you ever seen us?”

“No,” said Merrimeg.

“I suppose they can’t see us from down here, and we’ve never been away from the stars before.”

“I wish we’d never come,” said Winnie, crying again.

“I’ll tell you,” said Pennie. “To-night we were hanging out the stars, and Winnie--poor Winnie!”

“I didn’t mean to,” sobbed Winnie. “I didn’t mean to!”

“What did she do?” said Merrimeg.

“She dropped one of her stars,” said Pennie.

“It’s gone!” sobbed Winnie. “And I can’t go back without it!”

“It fell and fell and fell and fell,” said Florrie, “and then we couldn’t see it any more. It dropped down here, somewhere near here, we’re sure of it.”

“Do you see up there?” said Pennie. “Up there where there’s a wide dark space between the stars?” She pointed to the sky, directly overhead. There was a space there, about as big as a blanket, without any star.

“Yes, I see,” said Merrimeg.

“That’s where the star belongs,” said Pennie.

“We’ll never find it!” said Winnie, putting her face down on Florrie’s shoulder.

“I’m sure we shall,” said Florrie, “if Merrimeg will only help us. We don’t know anything about this dreadful earth place, but she knows.”

“Will you help us?” said Pennie.

“If I can,” said Merrimeg.

“Then come along,” said Pennie.

“Can’t I put on my clothes first?” said Merrimeg.

“There’s no time,” said Pennie. “Suppose daylight should come before we find it? What _would_ we do?”

“Let’s go, then,” said Florrie; and she moved away lightly down the street, drawing Winnie along by the hand, their wings waving gently in the air.

“Where shall we go?” said Pennie.

A thought came into Merrimeg’s mind. She would take them to the gnomes’ house, and the two brothers would surely tell them how to find the star.

“I’ll take you,” said she, pushing on ahead towards the woods beyond the village. She was used to going barefoot, and she didn’t mind the rough ground. It was a warm night, and she soon forgot that she was only in her nightgown.

They went into the woods.

“It’s so gloomy,” said Winnie, in a whisper. “I don’t like these strange earth places. I wish we were at home among the stars.”

“We’ll be home before morning, never fear,” said Florrie.

They stopped beside the pool where Merrimeg had once tried to wash the black from her face. The trees were wide apart here, and Merrimeg, looking up, could see the bare spot in the sky directly overhead, where the lost star belonged.

“Where are you taking us?” said Pennie.

“I’m taking you to the gnomes’ house,” said Merrimeg. “We’ll soon be there. It’s two gnomes who’ve been very good to me; I know where they live. They’re the ones to help us.”

“Is one of them named Malkin?” said Florrie.

“And the other one Nibby?” said Pennie.

“Yes,” said Merrimeg.

“Then it’s no use,” said Pennie. “We’ve been there already.”

“They were asleep,” said Florrie, “and we woke them up, and they didn’t like it a bit. They wouldn’t get up for any foolish old star,--that’s what they said. But they told us about you, and that’s how we came to hunt you up. But the horrid gnomes wouldn’t do a thing for us; they wouldn’t even get up.”

“They’re not horrid,” said Merrimeg. “Oh dear, I don’t know what we’re going to do now.”

She looked down sadly into the dark water of the pool, trying to think what to do next. She gave a little jump of surprise, and looked harder. Far, far down, away down deep under the water of the pool,----

She saw a star.

“Look!” she cried, and pointed her finger at it.

The starlight fairies leaned over, and looked down into the pool.

“That’s it!” cried Florrie.

“It’s my star!” cried Winnie.

“It’s our lost star!” cried Pennie. “Dropped down from the sky to the bottom of this pool.”

“Then,” said Merrimeg, “you’d better go down and get it.”

“Oh no! oh no! oh no!” cried the three fairies together.

“We mustn’t get our wings wet!” said Pennie.

“We’d never be able to fly home if our wings got wet,” said Winnie.

“But _you_ have no wings,” said Florrie to Merrimeg.

“No, _she_ has no wings,” said Pennie.

“_She_ shall go down for our star,” said Winnie. “You will, won’t you?”

“The water’s deep and dark,” said Merrimeg.

“But you have no wings,” said Florrie.

“The water’s cold and gloomy,” said Merrimeg.

“But you have no wings,” said Pennie.

“I wonder if I could do it,” said Merrimeg.

“Oh please!” cried Winnie. “Oh dearest Merrimeg, please get my star.”

“I’ll see how deep it is,” said Merrimeg, and she threw a stone into the middle of the pool. The water rippled away as the stone sank, and the star could not be seen any longer.

“Oh!” cried Winnie. “Now you’ve sent my star away! It’s gone!”

But the water became quiet in a moment, and there was the star again, shining bright at the bottom of the pool.

At that instant, they heard a splash in the water, and a shrill voice, like the voice of an angry boy, cried out:

“Who breaks my glass? Who breaks my glass?”

“What can that be?” whispered Merrimeg.

“I don’t know,” said Florrie. “Throw another stone, and perhaps we’ll hear it again.”

Merrimeg tossed another stone into the pool, and when the ripples had died away they heard the same voice again. This time it said:

“Who strikes my children? Who strikes my children?”

“Throw another,” whispered Pennie, and Merrimeg cast in another stone.

This time there was a loud wail, and the voice cried:

“My children! My children! I’m coming! I’m coming!”

Then there was a splash, and nothing more. They waited a long time, but they heard nothing more.

“I’m going to see,” said Merrimeg. “I may have hurt somebody. I can see better from the end of that log.”

There was a dead log, the trunk of a fallen tree, lying out from the bank of the pool into the water, and Merrimeg stepped onto it and getting down on her hands and knees crawled out to the end of it. It was slippery, and she had to hold on very carefully to keep from falling off into the water.

She leaned over as far as she could and looked down into the pool. She looked everywhere for the star, but she couldn’t see it; there seemed to be some dark thing under the water between herself and the star.

“The star is gone!” she said to the others, in a whisper.

As she said this, a hand came up out of the water and seized her wrist and pulled her off the log. Over she went into the pool, down, down, far down. The hand never once let go of her wrist. It pulled her down and down, faster and faster. At first she thought she was going to choke with the water, but in a moment she was all right again, only wet, very wet. And in another moment she was at the bottom, and the hand let go of her wrist. She stood up on her two feet on a floor of what looked like glass.

There was a pale light shining all about her through the water, and she saw that it came from the star, lying on the floor nearby. Just over her head was a roof of glass, and it was badly broken in three or four places. Around her were walls of glass. She was in a little house of glass, with a broken roof, and full of water.

A hand took hold suddenly of her arm, and she was dragged across the floor in a great hurry, by the creature who had pulled her down from the log. It was a sprite; a water sprite, whose head just reached to her shoulder; full-grown, evidently, in spite of being so small; with pointed ears, and no hair on his head, and long green water grass trailing around him.

He dragged Merrimeg straight to the star, and picked it up by a kind of sling that it was meant to hang by. It flashed and glittered as he snatched it up.

He pointed to the floor, and Merrimeg saw, lying there side by side, three tiny sprites, babies, no bigger than kittens, and exactly like the grown one who was holding her arm. They looked as if they were asleep, but on the forehead of each one was a black and blue bruise, and Merrimeg knew that she must have hurt them with her stones, as well as broken the glass of their little home.

Their father, if it was their father, motioned to her to pick them up. She gathered them up in her arms, and the sprite, carrying the star in one hand, seized her hair with the other hand and sprang up towards the holes in the broken glass roof; and in another instant she was being dragged upward through the water as fast as she had been pulled down.

She almost dropped the little mites she was holding in her arms, but she hugged them tighter, and when they came to the surface of the pool she was holding them safe in her arms.

They came out dripping on the bank of the pool, and there were the three starlight fairies.

“Oh!” cried Winnie. “She’s brought my star!”

The water sprite dragged Merrimeg onto the dry grass, and took the three babies from her arms and laid them down on the grass.

“Now! now! now!” he cried. It was plain that he was very angry. He was trembling all over. “What are you going to do about it? Look what you’ve done.”

“Why,” said Merrimeg, “why----”

“First comes this horrible star and breaks in the roof of my house and lets in all the water! And then--oh you wicked creatures!--you throw down your ’bom’nable stones and break my roof all to pieces and kill my children--my poor children--_look_ at ’em--_look_ at ’em, will you?--look at those bumps on their foreheads--oh my poor children--You ’bom’nable creatures, you! You perfectly awful wicked ’bom’nable----”

“Oh!” said Florrie. “It’s too bad. I’m so sorry.”

“We didn’t mean to do any harm,” said Pennie.

“And after he was so kind as to bring our star back to us, too,” said Winnie.