alked out backward, and in a minute he returned,
carrying a little black wand with a red berry at the top of it, and,
giving it to the Fairy, he bowed three times and walked out backward as
he had done before.

The little man waved the rod three times over the Dwarf, and struck him
once on the right shoulder and once on the left shoulder, and then
touched his lips with the red berry, and said: "Speak!"

The Dwarf spoke, and he was so rejoiced at hearing the sound of his own
voice that he danced about the room.

"Who are you at all, at all?" said he to the Fairy.

"Who is yourself?" said the Fairy. "But come, before we have any talk
let us have something to eat, for I am sure you are hungry."

Then they sat down to table, and the Fairy rang the little brass bell
twice, and the weeny Dwarf brought in two boiled snails in their shells,
and when they had eaten the snails he brought in a dormouse, and when
they had eaten the dormouse he brought in two wrens, and when they had
eaten the wrens he brought in two nuts full of wine, and they became
very merry, and the Fairyman sang "Cooleen Dhas," and the Dwarf sang
"The Little Blackbird of the Glen."

"Did you ever hear the 'Foggy Dew'?" said the Fairy.

"No," said the Dwarf.

"Well, then, I'll give it to you; but we must have some more wine."

And the wine was brought, and he sang the "Foggy Dew," and the Dwarf
said it was the sweetest song he had ever heard, and that the Fairyman's
voice would coax the birds off the bushes!

"You asked me who I am?" said the Fairy.

"I did," said the Dwarf.

"And I asked you who is yourself?"

"You did," said the Dwarf.

"And who are you, then?"

"Well, to tell the truth, I don't know," said the Dwarf, and he blushed
like a rose.

"Well, tell me what you know about yourself."

"I remember nothing at all," said the Dwarf, "before the day I found
myself going along with a crowd of all sorts of people to the great fair
of the Liffey. We had to pass by the King's palace on our way, and as we
were passing the King sent for a band of jugglers to come and show their
tricks before him. I followed the jugglers to look on, and when the play
was over the King called me to him, and asked me who I was and where I
came from. I was dumb then, and couldn't answer; but even if I could
speak I could not tell him what he wanted to know, for I remembered
nothing of myself before that day. Then the King asked the jugglers, but
they knew nothi