dazzling blue, and the branches were piled with little ridges of
fluffy-looking snow, which produced a delightful effect. And among
them, with her happy golden feet in the snow, and her rosy plumes
fluffed out, sat the Plynck, looking as softly dazzling as a snowy
sunrise. An army of Gunki were busily mowing the deep snow with
scintillating long-handled ice-sickles. It flew up in clouds as they
mowed, and another army of Gunki was engaged in catching it in baskets
and spreading it smoothly down again. One and all, they seemed deeply
absorbed in this useful work.

Still a third crew of Gunki were engaged in helping Schlorge reset the
stump. They had got it nearly into place by the time Sara arrived. It
was a tremendous engineering feat, and had evidently required any
number of ropes and pulleys and things.

Sara could see that the ropes were made of taffy, but she could not
imagine where they had found enough pulley-bones to supply all the
pulleys. So she asked Schlorge about it, and he explained with great
relish that they had used the wish-bones of the Fractions themselves.

"Oh, we've made 'em useful!" said Schlorge, triumphantly. "We've used
everything about 'em except their conceit. We didn't want that, so we
just raked it up into piles and burned it."

As he talked, Schlorge was busy fitting the stump exactly to the root
that was left in the ground, so that it would grow back just right
when the snow melted.

"I have to hurry," explained Schlorge, working away with an anxious
expression, "because I have an announcement to make to you--a message