chrysanthemums heard her, and they all said so pointedly "Hoity-toity,
what is this?" that she had to come out and show herself. Then the
whole vegetable kingdom was rather puzzled what to do.

"Of course it is no affair of ours," a spindle tree said after they
had whispered together, "but you know quite well you ought not to be
here, and perhaps our duty is to report you to the fairies; what do
you think yourself?"

"I think you should not," Maimie replied, which so perplexed them that
they said petulantly there was no arguing with her. "I wouldn't ask
it of you," she assured them, "if I thought it was wrong," and of
course after this they could not well carry tales. They then said,
"Well-a-day," and "Such is life!" for they can be frightfully
sarcastic, but she felt sorry for those of them who had no crutches,
and she said good-naturedly, "Before I go to the fairies' ball, I
should like to take you for a walk one at a time; you can lean on me,
you know."

At this they clapped their hands, and she escorted them up to the Baby
Walk and back again, one at a time, putting an arm or a finger round
the very frail, setting their leg right when it got too ridiculous,
and treating the foreign ones quite as courteously as the English,
though she could not understand a word they said.

They behaved well on the whole, though some whimpered that she had not
taken them as far as she took Nancy or Grace or Dorothy, and others
jagged her, but it was quite unintentional, and she was too much of a
lady to cry out. So much walking tired her and she was anxious to be
off to the ball, but she no longer felt afraid. The reason she felt