ith her eyes, but they vanished instantly. It was
as if the whole white company had dissolved in the shimmering air.

The doves had only just gone when she heard a couple of piercing cries
from the garden, and as she hastened thither she saw a singular sight.
There stood a tiny midget, no taller than a hand's breadth, struggling
with a brown owl. At first she was so astonished that she could not
move. But when the midget cried more and more pitifully, she stepped up
quickly and parted the fighters. The owl swung herself into a tree, but
the midget stood on the gravel path, without attempting either to hide
or to run away.

"Thanks for your help," he said. "But it was very stupid of you to let
the owl escape. I can't get away from here, because she is sitting up in
the tree watching me."

"It was thoughtless of me to let her go. But to make amends, can't I
accompany you to your home?" asked she who wrote stories, somewhat
surprised to think that in this unexpected fashion she had got into
conversation with one of the tiny folk. Still she was not so much
surprised after all. It was as if all the while she had been awaiting
some extraordinary experience, while she walked in the moonlight outside
her old home.

"The fact is, I had thought of stopping here over night," said the
midget. "If you will only show me a safe sleeping place, I shall not be
obliged to return to the forest before daybreak."

"Must I show you a place to sleep? Are you not at home here?"

"I understand that you take me for one of the tiny folk," said the
midget, "but I'm a human being, like yourself, although I have been
transformed by an elf."

"That is the most remarkable thing I have ever heard! Wouldn't you like
to tell me how you happened to get into such a plight?"

The boy did not mind telling her of his adventures, and, as the
narrative proceeded, she who listened to him grew more and more
astonished and happy.

"What luck to run across one who has travelled all over Sweden on the
back of a goose!" thought she. "Just this which he is relating I shall
write down in my book. Now I need worry no more over that matter. It was
well that I came home. To think that I should find such help as soon as
I came to the old place!"

Instantly another thought flashed into her mind. She had sent word to
her father by the doves that she longed for home, and almost immediately
she had received help in the matter she had pondered so long. Might not
th