as if a sudden gust of wind had
struck them, and seemed all at once to go farther off; and the hollow
murmur was no longer to be heard. I shut the window and went to bed.
But, the last thing, I looked out once again. The meadow was clear of
mist and bright beneath the light of the moon.

As I lay in bed I thought and thought over what I had seen last. I was
quite sure that the pillars of mist concealed some beings who wished me
no good: but why should they have any spite against me? I was also sure
that they wanted to get into the house: but again, why? You may think I
was slow in the wits, but I must confess that some few minutes passed
before I guessed. Of course they wanted to get hold of the box with the
five jars. The thought disturbed me so much that I got up, lighted a
candle, and went to the cupboard to see if all was safe. Yes, the box
was there, but the cupboard door, which I knew I had locked, was
unfastened, and when I had to turn the key it became plain that the lock
was hampered and useless. How could this have come about? Earlier in the
evening it had been perfectly right, and nobody had been in the room
since I locked it last.

Whoever had done it, they had made the cupboard no safe place for the
box. I took it into the bedroom and after a minute's thought cleared
out a space in a suit-case which I had brought with me, locked it in
that, and put the key on the ring of my watch-chain. Watch and all went
under my pillow, and once more I got into bed.

IV

THE SMALL PEOPLE

You will have made sure that the next jar I meant to try was the one for
the tongue, in hopes that it would help me to speak to some of the
creatures. Though I looked forward to the experiment very much, and felt
somewhat restless until I had made it, I did get a good deal of
amusement out of what I saw and heard the next day. The small people
were not to be seen--at least not in the morning. No, I am wrong: I
found a bunch of three of them--young ones--asleep in a hollow tree.
They woke up and looked at me without much interest, and when I was
withdrawing my head they blew kisses to me. I am afraid there is no
doubt they did so in derision. But there were others. I passed a
cottage garden in which a little dog was barking most furiously. It
seemed to be barking at a clothes-line, on which, with a lot of other
things, was a print dress with rather a staring pattern of flowers. The
dress caught my eye, and so did something r