ld eat their enemies; but as they never insisted upon sharing such
rations with their friends, the Brownies made no objections. To have
their new ally serve their old friend in this style was sad work, and
their indignation waxed warm. But when Twist stopped short in his path,
and deliberately composed himself to rest, the Brownies could not
restrain themselves.

"How is this," they cried, "do you mean to leave off a work so well
begun? Come, this is not keeping faith. Up, and renew the attack! You
will rout the whole Pixie army before sunrise if you keep on."

"Thank--ee--kind--le," drawled Twist, winking first with one eye and
then with the other. "I nev' c'n work af'r thupper. Muth take time t'
digest. Sh'nt do 'nything till '--r--morer. 'M go'n thleep right here.
Goo' night, Thir Brownithz, 'll finish job'n mornin'." His head dropped
down upon the grass; he was sound asleep.

"Humph," said Corporal Spur, who had charge of the squad, "that ends
this campaign. If the Pixies don't serve that gourmand with a rather
peppery sauce for his supper, I'm out in my reckoning. Attention, squad!
wheel--fly!" He wheeled his own pony, and led his little command back to
their quarters. As they flew above the Pixie lines they saw the camp
alive with excited troops swarming from every quarter toward the spot
where Twist lay.

A squad of reckless youngsters who had jointly mounted the back of a
huge Polyphemus moth, could not resist the temptation to let fly a few
arrows at the crowd of excited Pixies beneath them. One of the squad,
our old friend Highjinks, nearly lost his life, however, for in his
eagerness he tumbled off the pony's back. Fortunately, Hosson seized one
hand and drew him back safely. But it was a narrow escape, and even
Highjinks was for a time quite sedate as he thought what his fate would
have been had he dropped into the midst of that angry host of foes. In
the excitement, Polyphemus came quite near the ground, and barely
escaped being lassoed by one of the Vaulting Legion.

Meanwhile, a circle of Pixies had hemmed in the sleeping serpent; but no
one dared to interfere with him until Spite came. Then they began to
clamor for orders:

"What shall we do, Captain?"

"Do?" said Spite, fairly hissing the answer through his teeth. "Do? Why,
we'll hang the villain!"

"Aha! Captain Spite talks very large, indeed," whispered the soldiers
one to another. "Who ever heard of Pixies hanging a serpent?"

At any rate