y-Dudget is the pleasantest fellow in the world, and not
at all like what you had been made to believe him.'

'Oh-h!' exclaimed Harold, staring at Rumpty-Dudget with wide-open
eyes. 'I don't see how that can be true. Who are you?'

'A friend,' replied Rumpty-Dudget. 'And to prove it I have brought
over this bundle of faggots; and when these are used up I will get
you some more.'

'Oh, thank you very much!' exclaimed Harold, jumping for joy, and
going as near to the inside edge of the circle as he could. 'Give them
to me quick, for there is no time to be lost; the fire is just going
out.'

'I can't bring them inside the circle,' said the dwarf, suddenly
putting the bundle on the ground, and pretending to be very much
exhausted. 'I have carried them already all the way from the further
side of the forest, and that is far enough. Surely you can come the
rest of the way for them yourself.'

'But I must not come outside the circle, you know,' said Harold,
dancing up and down with impatience.

'Why not?'

'Because Tom the Cat said that if I did all would go wrong.'

'Pshaw! what should a cat know about a thing like this?' demanded the
dwarf very scornfully. 'At all events, your fire will burn less than a
minute longer; and you know what will happen when it goes out.'

At that Harold became almost beside himself with anxiety and
bewilderment, and what to do he could not tell. But at last he
thought that anything would be better than to let the fire go out; so
he put one foot outside the circle and stretched forth his hand for
the faggots.

'Just the least bit further,' said the dwarf coaxingly. 'I would save
you the trouble if I could; but I am really too tired to stir.'

Harold saw that by stretching about six inches further he could reach
a faggot. But in order to stretch six inches he would be obliged to
put the other foot outside the circle. 'After all, what can it
matter?' he thought. And the next moment there he was, outside!

Immediately, with aloud laugh, the dwarf flung away the faggots far
into the depths of the forest; and rushing into the circle, he began
to stamp out with his feet what was left of the enchanted fire.

Then Harold recognised Rumpty-Dudget for the first time, for the spell
was off him. And Harold remembered what Tom the Cat had said, and he
leaped back into the circle, and as the last bit of flame flickered at
the end of the stick he laid himself down upon it. Whereupon
Rumpty-Dudge