of glittering stones. He sat on a high stool behind his counter and
served his customers himself; he kept no clerk.

It did not take the children long to discover what beautiful things he
had, and how superior he was to the other costumers, and they begun to
flock to his shop immediately, from the Mayor's daughter to the poor
rag-picker's. The children were to select their own costumes; the
Mayor had stipulated that. It was to be a children's ball in every
sense of the word.

So they decided to be fairies, and shepherdesses, and princesses,
according to their own fancies; and this new costumer had charming
costumes to suit them.

It was noticeable, that, for the most part, the children of the rich,
who had always had everything they desired, would choose the parts of
goose-girls and peasants and such like; and the poor children jumped
eagerly at the chance of being princesses or fairies for a few hours
in their miserable lives.

When Christmas Eve came, and the children flocked into the Mayor's
mansion, whether it was owing to the Costumer's art, or their own
adaptation to the characters they had chosen, it was wonderful how
lifelike their representations were. Those little fairies in their
short skirts of silken gauze, in which golden sparkles appeared as
they moved, with their little funny gossamer wings, like butterflies,
looked like real fairies. It did not seem possible, when they floated
around to the music, half supported on the tips of their dainty toes,
half by their filmy, purple wings, their delicate bodies swaying in
time, that they could be anything but fairies. It seemed absurd to