branches behind him, and
began tuning their tiny instruments.

The children, full of glee, arranged themselves for a dance, the band
struck up "Sir Roger de Coverley," and away they all went, their little
feet keeping time to the music as truly as the leader's tiny baton. They
danced, and they danced, and they danced, till they were too tired to
dance any more, then they flung themselves down to rest; upon which the
little leader of the band jumped down from his perch and placed himself
on a broad smooth leaf, that two of his band spread on the grass
opposite to where sat the king and queen.

He made a low bow to their majesties, the band struck up, and the little
fellow commenced dancing a _pas seul_. If you had seen him prancing and
capering about the leaf, now with his arms akimbo, going jauntily round
and gracefully bending his body from side to side, keeping time to the
music as he did so; now suddenly clasping his hands above his head,
whirl rapidly round and round till he got to the front edge of the leaf,
and then, springing into the air, come down on the very tips of his
pointed shoes; if you had seen all this I think you would have laughed
and shouted as loudly as did Rosetta, Minette, and all the rest of the
little folks. When the droll fellow had finished his dance he flourished
his feathered cap, made a low bow, and backed to where his companions
were standing. The gourd slowly opened again, and each little fellow
making his bow, popped in as quickly as he had popped out; then the
gourd closed, and nothing more was seen of the little musicians that
day.

The children gathered round the gourd and tried to open it; tapped at
it; called to the little musicians to come back; bent down their pretty
heads to listen; but all was useless, no sound came from it, and they
might as well have tried to open the oak tree 'neath which they stood as
it.

Now, for fear you should think that the good fairy had left these little
children to take care of themselves entirely, to cook their own food,
wash their own clothes, make their own beds, and all that sort of
work--for children, you know, cannot do these things for themselves, and
that is why they are always so good and obedient to mammas and papas and
kind aunts, who see to all these things being done for them--I will tell
you what queer, droll little beings she left in the island to attend to
the domestic concerns of the young king and queen and their little
subjec