wouldn't allow it with my folks' babies here. I told Sir Huon so
once.'

'Who was Sir Huon?' Dan asked, and Puck turned on him in
quiet astonishment.

'Sir Huon of Bordeaux - he succeeded King Oberon. He had
been a bold knight once, but he was lost on the road to Babylon, a
long while back. Have you ever heard "How many miles to
Babylon?"?'

'Of course,' said Dan, flushing.

'Well, Sir Huon was young when that song was new. But
about tricks on mortal babies. I said to Sir Huon in the fern here,
on just such a morning as this: "If you crave to act and influence
on folk in housen, which I know is your desire, why don't you
take some human cradle-babe by fair dealing, and bring him up
among yourselves on the far side of Cold Iron - as Oberon did in
time past? Then you could make him a splendid fortune, and send
him out into the world."

'"Time past is past time," says Sir Huon. "I doubt if we could
do it. For one thing, the babe would have to be taken without
wronging man, woman, or child. For another, he'd have to be
born on the far side of Cold Iron - in some house where no Cold
Iron ever stood; and for yet the third, he'd have to be kept from
Cold Iron all his days till we let him find his fortune. No, it's not
easy," he said, and he rode off, thinking. You see, Sir Huon had
been a man once.