were--little men, little women, little children, and little babies, as
thick in the tulip bed as folks at a wedding. The little men sat smoking
their pipes and talking together; the little women sat nursing their
babies, singing to them or rocking them to sleep in cradles of tulip
flowers; the little children played at hide-and-seek among the
flower-stalks. So the dame leaned out of the window, watching them with
great delight, for it is always a delight to watch the little folks at
their sports.

[Illustration: Dame Margery Twist goeth to see the merry doings at the
Fair.]

After a while she saw where one of the tiny fairy children hid himself
under a leaf, while the others who were to seek him looked up and down,
and high and low, but could find him nowhere. Then the old dame laughed
and laughed to see how the others looked for the little fellow, but
could not tell where he was. At last she could hold her peace no longer,
but called out in a loud voice, "Look under the leaf, Blackcap!"

The words were no sooner out of her mouth than, whisk! whirr! off they
scampered out of the garden and away--fathers, mothers, children,
babies, all crying in their shrill voices, "She sees us! she sees us!"
For fairies are very timid folk, and dread nothing more than to have
mortals see them in their own shapes.

So they never came back again to the dame's garden, and from that day to
this her tulips have been like everybody else's tulips. Moreover,
whenever she went out the fairies scampered away before her like so many
mice, for they all knew that she could see them with her magical eye.
This, as you may see, was bad enough, but no other harm would have come