Dick, Marjorie and Fidge | Page 6

twice as wide as he was high."]
"Me, too!" cried Fidge.
To their great surprise, nothing happened. They waited a moment or two, staring at each other expectantly, and then Marjorie cried in a troubled voice--
"Oh, dear! I don't believe it's going to work, and we shall have to stay like this forever."
"What nonsense!" cried Dick.
"I say! I want to be as small as the gnomes," he shouted.
There was no result, however, and the children remained as they were.
"Oh! I know," he cried; "I ought to have the paper that the Ambassador gave me in my hand. Where is it?"
There was a great whispering amongst the gnomes, and at last one of them shouted out--
"We've taken it away."
"What for?" demanded Dick. "It was given to us; you had better give it up at once. What do you mean by it?"
There was another whispered consultation, and then one of the gnomes said, "Let them have it for now," and the paper was put down upon the ground at Dick's feet.
Dick stooped down and picked it up, and immediately the children began to dwindle down till they became as small as the little people themselves.
They had no sooner done so than the paper which the Ambassador had given them was suddenly snatched from Dick's hand and a number of the gnomes surrounded them, dancing about, turning somersaults, playing leap-frog, and capering about in the maddest way.
"Well, you've done it now," said one of them, tauntingly.
"What do you mean?" inquired Dick.
"Why, we've got the paper, and you can't grow any bigger until we allow you to."
"What a mean trick!" cried Dick, in disgust.
"Well, we don't think it at all fair," said the gnomes, "that you should be able to grow any size that you want to, while we have to keep little, so we are going to keep you here for a little while, and teach you to believe in fairies, do you see?"
"But we've got to find the Dodo in a week," expostulated Dick, "and if you keep us here, however are we to do that?"
"Oh, please give us the paper back," begged Marjorie. "I'm sure the Pater will be so vexed if we never grow any bigger than this any more." And she began to cry a little.
You see, such a lot of very unusual things had happened that she was a little excited and nervous.
"Well, we'll think about it," said the gnomes, running away and hiding among the rocks.
"Don't cry, Marjorie," said Dick, bravely, though he too felt a little anxious himself; for, you see, eleven inches is not very tall for any one to be, and he didn't care to admit what would happen if he went back to school in his present state.
"Chappel Minor has always been cheeky," he thought, "and so have Martin and Foster, and if I keep this size they will think they can do just as they like with me, and probably will turn me out of the cricket eleven, while that little wretch of a Castleton is sure to sneak all my pencils--he does now when he gets a chance." However, he kept these doleful thoughts to himself, and devoted himself to the task of consoling his sister and Fidge, and had soon talked them into such a cheerful frame of mind, that they really began to think that it was rather an advantage than otherwise to have lost the paper.
"For one thing, we shall not have to hunt for that old Dodo," argued Dick, "because even the Grand Panjandrum himself, whoever he may be, could not expect us to go far away while we remain as little as this, and so we are not in such great danger of being--er--er--thingummybobbed--you know--what the Ambassador said we should be, if we didn't find the wretched thing."
"Supposing we try and find the Ambassador," suggested Marjorie. "I don't think he was really very cross, only a little abrupt, you know; and we could explain everything to him, and perhaps he would give us a new paper."
"All right," said Dick, leading the way. "At any rate, he will be able to make us grow bigger--that is, if we wish to," he added, with a fine affectation of unconcern.
The children walked on for some time in the direction in which the Ambassador and his followers had disappeared, and they soon found themselves out of the cave and in a kind of forest.
[Illustration: "A curious little old man with a flowing beard came toward them."]
"What funny trees," said Fidge, looking up over his head.
The others followed his example, and found that he had good cause for his surprise; the long, smooth trunks, without any leaves, ended in a kind of ball, while at the roots a kind of enormous bulb appeared.
"Whatever can they be?" cried Marjorie, in amazement.
"Onions!" was the reply,