"So!" said the Counterpane Fairy. "Did you know no better than to open
the diamond door?"

"No," said Teddy, "I knew no better."

"Then," said the fairy, "if you can pay no better heed to my warnings
than that, the princess must wait for another hero, for you are not the
one."

"Let me try but once more," cried Teddy, "for this time I shall surely
find her."

"Then you may try once more and for the last time," said the fairy, "but
beware of what is little and gray." Stooping she picked from the grass
beside her a fallen acorn cup and handed it to him. "Take this with
you," she said, "for it may serve you well."

As he took it from her, it was changed in his hand to a goblet of gold
set round with precious stones. He thrust it into his bosom, for he was
in haste, and turning he ran for the third time up the flight of glass
steps. This time so eager was he that he never once paused to look back,
but all the time he ran on up and up he was wondering what it was that
she meant about her warning. She had said, "Beware of what is little and
gray." What had he seen that was little and gray?

As soon as he reached the great golden hall he walked over to the
curtain of spider-web. The spider was spinning so fast that it was
little more than a gray streak, but presently it stopped up in the
left-hand corner of the web. As the hero looked at it he saw that it was
little and gray. Then it began to sing to him in its little thin voice: