Hereat cried Robin, _Ho, ho, hoh!_"

THE TRICKS OF THE WOMEN FAIRIES TOLD BY SIB

"To walk nightly, as do the men fairies, we use not; but now and then we go
together, and at good housewives' fires we warm and dress our fairy
children. If we find clean water and clean towels, we leave them money,
either in their basins or in their shoes; but if we find no clean water in
their houses, we wash our children in their pottage, milk, or beer, or
whate'er we find: for the sluts that leave not such things fitting, we wash
their faces and hands with a gilded child's clout, or else carry them to
some river, and duck them over head and ears. We often use to dwell in some
great hill, and from thence we do lend money to any poor man or woman that
hath need; but if they bring it not again at the day appointed, we do not
only punish them with pinching, but also in their goods, so that they never
thrive till they have paid us.

Tib and I the chiefest are,
And for all things do take care.
Lick is cook and dresseth meat,
And fetcheth all things that we eat:
Lull is nurse and tends the cradle,
And the babes doth dress and swaddle.
This little fellow, called Tom Thumb,
That is no bigger than a plum,
He is the porter to our gate,
For he doth let all in thereat,
And makes us merry with his play,
And merrily we spend the day."