the house looked all in a
muddle. It made him sad, and that made Elsa sad, for she wanted to do
everything just right.

At last, one day, Elsa's husband went away quite cross; he said to her,
as he went out of the door, "It is no wonder that the house looks so,
when you sit all day with your hands in your lap!"

Little Elsa cried bitterly when he was gone, for she did not want to
make her husband unhappy and cross, and she wanted the house to look
nice. "Oh, dear," she sobbed, "I wish I could do things right! I wish I
could work! I wish--I wish I had ten good fairies to work for me! Then I
could keep the house!"

As she said the words, a great grey man stood before her; he was wrapped
in a strange grey cloak that covered him from head to foot; and he
smiled at Elsa. "What is the matter, dear?" he said. "Why do you cry?"

"Oh, I am crying because I do not know how to keep the house," said
Elsa. "I cannot make bread, I cannot sweep, I cannot sew a seam; when I
was a little girl I never learned to work, and now I cannot do anything
right. I wish I had ten good fairies to help me!"

"You shall have them, dear," said the grey man, and he shook his strange
grey cloak. Pouf! Out hopped ten tiny fairies, no bigger than that!

"These shall be your servants, Elsa," said the grey man; "they are
faithful and clever, and they will do everything you want them to, just
right. But the neighbours might stare and ask questions if they saw
these little chaps running about your house, so I will hide them away
for you. Give me your little useless hands."

Wondering, Elsa stretched out her pretty, little, white hands.

"Now stretch out your little useless fingers, dear!"

Elsa stretched out her pretty pink fingers.

The grey man touched each one of the ten little fingers, and as he
touched them he said their names: "Little Thumb; Forefinger;
Thimble-finger; Ring-finger; Little Finger; Little Thumb; Forefinger;
Thimble-finger; Ring-finger; Little Finger!" And as he named the
fingers, one after another, the tiny fairies bowed their tiny heads;
there was a fairy for every name.

"Hop! hide yourselves away!" said the grey man.

Hop, hop! The fairies sprang to Elsa's knee, then to the palms of her
hands, and then--whisk! they were all hidden away in her little pink
fingers, a fairy in every finger! And the grey man was gone.

Elsa sat and looked with wonder at her little white hands and the ten
useless fingers. But suddenly the lit