t by the fire.

[Illustration: The Mecha-meck]

But from that day, the Brownies have been very shy of feasting during
dry weather in the woods. They generally have their banquets now in some
meadow, and afterward you can tell the place of the feast by the circle
of little toadstools called fairy rings. For you know that wherever a
Brownie sits, a toadstool must spring up for him to sit on.

TALE 23

The Mecha-meck

That fearful time when the forest fire set all the Brownies busy burying
their food and dishes at the feast-hall, you remember it took six of
them to carry and hide the Mecha-meck. For it is a large fat white root
as big as a baby, and sometimes it has arms or legs, so that when
Monapini told Ruth Pilgrim about it she called it "Man-of-the-earth."

You remember that the busy Brownie hid all the Crinkle salads, and so
saved them; and most of us have found the Crinkleroot and eaten it
since. But how many of us have found the Mecha-meck? I know only one man
who has. We call him the Wise Woodman. He found and dug out the one from
which I made the picture. It was two and a half feet long and weighed
fifteen pounds--fifteen pounds of good food. Think of it! Above it and
growing out of its hiding place was a long trailing vine that looked
like a white morning-glory. There is always one of these over the
Mecha-meck. And by that you may find it, if you look along the sunny
banks outside of the woods. But still it is very hard to find. I never
yet got one, though I have found many of the crinkle-root salads. Of
course, that is easy to explain, for the busy Brownies buried hundreds
of the salads, but only one of the big fat Mecha-meck.

TALE 24

Dutchman's Breeches

[Illustration: Dutchman's Dive

Dutchman's Breeches]

Of course they are not, for no Dutchman I ever saw could wear such tiny
things. I will tell you what they really are and how that came to be.

You remember how the Brownies assembled for the feast on May Day when
the Glow worms were the lamps and the Wood Thrush rang the bell. Well,
it so happened that day that a great crowd of the merrymakers gathered
long before the feast was ready, and while they were wondering what to
do someone shouted: "See, how fine and warm the water is where the brook
spreads out into the ditch. Let us have our first swim of the season
right now!"

So they all went with a whoop! stripped off their clothes, and into
their swimming breeches with a perfect riot