him and given him his breakfast,
she sent him away to play for a few minutes, and whisking out the ointment
pot again, she brushed the least bit of it over one of her eyes with the
tip of her finger.

Oh, how it burned and smarted! and oh, how she did rub her eye and try to
get the nasty stuff out! But it would not come. She ran to the stream
and knelt down to bathe it,--and as she knelt and looked in the water she
saw, at the very bottom, dozens and dozens of little people, playing and
dancing, and enjoying themselves as though they were on dry land.
And there, too, as gay as any, and as small as any, was her master
himself. Bewildered and frightened, Cherry sprang to her feet, but as she
turned to run she saw everything was changed. There were Little People
everywhere, hanging on the trees overhead, swarming over the ground at her
feet, swinging on the flowers, some astride the stalks, others curled up
in the cups, all exquisitely dressed, and flashing with gold and jewels;
and all as merry as crickets.

Cherry thought she was bewitched sure enough, and she was so frightened
she did not know what to do.

At night back rode her master, as big and handsome as ever, and very
unlike the little piskyman she had seen at the bottom of the water.
He went straight up to the locked-up room where the stone figures were,
and very soon Cherry heard sounds of most lovely music issuing thence.
So things went on day after day, the widower rode off every morning
dressed as any ordinary gentleman would be to follow the hounds, and never
came back again until night, when he retired at once to his own rooms.

All this was almost too much for poor Cherry's brain. She felt that if
she did not find out more, she should die of curiosity. Knowing so much
only made her long to know more.

At last, one night after her master had gone to the enchanted room, Cherry
crept up to the door, and instead of only listening at it as usual, she
knelt down and peeped through the keyhole, which, for once, was not
covered.

Inside the room she saw her master in the midst of a number of ladies,
some of whom were singing, and their voices sounded like silver bells;
others were walking about, but one, the most beautiful of all, was sitting
at the coffin on six legs, performing on it as though it were a piano.
She had long dark hair streaming right down to the floor, and a blue gown
all trimmed with sparkling silver, her shoes were blue with diamond