Sandmans Goodnight Stories | Page 9

and the bushes and the leaves were falling from
the trees, making the ground look as though it had a brown carpet over
it.
The air was frosty and the poor little Fairies looked about in
amazement at the dreary scene before them. The Goblins that escaped
were running around and calling on the Queen to help them rescue their
brothers.
"It is all your fault," they told her. "If you had asked the Gnomes to
your party this would not have happened. Now you must help us to get
our brothers out of the power of those bad Gnomes.
"What shall I do?" asked the poor Queen. She felt that her party had
been a failure and thought if she had asked the Gnomes it could not
have been worse.
Just then a Goblin came running toward them. He had been sent by the
Gnomes. They told him to say that his brothers would all be held
prisoners until the Fairies sent them all the ice cream they wanted.
The Fairies and the Goblins hurried to the kitchen in the hollow, but it
was empty. The squirrels and the rabbits had hurried off when they felt
the frosty air and saw everything turning brown.
"What is to be done?" asked the Goblins, "You ought to help us," they
told the Queen again. "If we had not come to your party we should not
have gotten into trouble."

The Queen could not resist replying to this remark the second time. "If
your brothers and you had not climbed on the table, but kept your seats,
as well-behaved Goblins should, you would not have been in need of
help.
"We must go to work," she said to her Fairies. "Fold your wings and
pin up your skirts. We must make ice cream for those wicked Gnomes."
They worked all night, and just before it was light the Goblins carried
ice cream in nut shells to the rocks of the Gnomes, and by and by the
captured Goblins came out and joined their comrades.
"We lost our supper," said the Goblins to the Fairies, "and you should
give us our breakfast. We are hungry. If it had not been for your party
we should not have lost our supper."
This was more than the poor tired Queen and her Fairies could bear.
They took their wands from under their wings and, waving them, they
flew toward the Gnomes.
Little sparks darted from the wands, and every time a spark touched a
Goblin it left a little red mark, and at the same time it pricked them.
Such tumbling and scampering you never saw as the Goblins tried to
get away, and when a Goblin that had a red spot on his face meets a
Fairy he hides or runs, for he knows that she will point him out as one
of the greedy Goblins who tried to make the Fairies cook their
breakfast for them.

THE LITTLE CHINA SHEPHERDESS
[Illustration: The China Shepherdess]
On the parlor mantel of a farmhouse stood little China Shepherdess. In
one hand she held a gilt crook and with the other she shaded her eyes
and gazed far away. Probably she was looking for her sheep. Her dress
was of red and green, and it was trimmed with gilt. Her boots were also

gilt.
On the other end of the mantel stood a little china Flute Player. He was
dressed in red and white, and his flute was gilt and his boots were red.
He held his flute to his lips in a very jaunty manner, but his eyes were
on the little Shepherdess. He had been in love with her for a long time,
but never a look did she give him.
China Cat stood near the Flute Player, and one day she heard him sigh.
"Why do you sigh?" she asked him. He shook his head, but did not
answer. "I know," said the Cat; "you are in love with the Shepherdess,
and she will not look at you. Now, let me tell you how to manage. First,
you must stop looking at her. She knows that you are always gazing in
her direction."
The Flute Player shook his head again and said, "I cannot help looking
at her, she is so pretty and I love her so dearly."
"But you must," said China Cat. "There is the Flower Girl on the center
table. Look at her and play your jolliest tune and see what happens."
So the little Flute Player took China Cat's advice and began to play a
lively air. He smiled at the little Flower Girl, who smiled in return and
made him a curtsey. Then she began to dance, keeping time to his
music. The Flute Player commenced to dance as he