or, "if I have to stick to Farmer Swede's waistcoat till
midnight."

But the waistcoat was finished by bed-time, and the Tailor set the
bread-and-milk-himself, and went to rest.

"I say," said Tommy, when both the boys were in bed, "the Old Owl was
right, and we must stick to it. But I'll tell you what I don't like,
and that is Father thinking we're idle still. I wish he knew we were
the Brownies."

"So do I," said Johnnie; and he sighed.

"I tell you what," said Tommy, with the decisiveness of elder
brotherhood, "we'll keep quiet for a bit for fear we should leave off;
but when we've gone on a good while, I shall tell him. It was only the
Old Owl's grandmother's great-grandmother who said it was to be kept
secret, and the Old Owl herself said grandmothers were not always in
the right."

"No more they are," said Johnnie; "look at Granny about this."

"I know," said Tommy. "She's in a regular muddle."

"So she is," said Johnnie. "But that's rather fun, I think."

And they went to sleep.

Day after day went by, and still the Brownies "stuck to it," and did
their work. It is no such very hard matter after all to get up early
when one is young and light-hearted, and sleeps upon heather in a loft
without window-blinds, and with so many broken window-panes that the
air comes freely in. In old times the boys used to play at tents among
the heather, while the Tailor did the house-work; now they came down
and did it for him.

Size is not everything, even in this material existence. One has heard
of dwarfs who were quite as clever (not to say as powerful) as giants,
and I do not fancy that Fairy Godmothers are ever very large. It is
wonderful what a comfort Brownies may be in the house that is fortunate
enough to hold them! The Tailor's Brownies were the joy of his life;
and day after day they seemed to grow more and more ingenious in
finding little things to do for his good.

Now-a-days Granny never picked a scrap for herself. One day's shearings
were all neatly arranged the next morning, and laid by her
knitting-pins; and the Tailor's tape and shears were no more absent
without leave.

One day a message came to him to offer him two or three days' tailoring
in a farm-house some miles up the valley. This was pleasant and
advantageous sort of work; good food, sure pay, and a cheerful change;
but he did not know how he could leave his family, unless, indeed, the
Brownie might be relied upon to "keep the house togeth