t is all
right. Here, Whirlit, Keener! Put my ponies Vesper and Vacuum into the
chariot--quick!"

The word had scarcely been spoken ere the two pages returned leading a
House Martin and a Meadow Lark, who were harnessed to a maple leaf
mounted upon wheels of thistledown. The stem of the leaf served as the
tongue of the chariot, and the palm of the leaf was bent over at the
apex and bent up at the base, so as to make a very pretty fairy coach
indeed.

The lark's name was Vesper, the martin's Vacuum, and Madam Breeze had
taken the liberty of nicknaming them "Vesp" and "Vac."

"Come; in with you!" cried the good Elf, and suddenly contracting
herself into the very smallest compass, as she was wont at times to do,
she bounced into the chariot. The Ensign followed. Whirlit and Keener
mounted the bird ponies, and waited for the word of command.

"To the cove. Go!" shouted Madam Breeze; and away the party went over
orchard and meadow, over town, bridge and river. They stopped at the
summit of a hill that stands at the mouth of the cove, whose brow has
been worn by frosts, heats and storms of centuries, until it stands up a
bald cliff. The naked rock below has a rough likeness to a human face,
and the fringe of bushes underneath gives the idea of a vast beard. The
top of the cliff is covered with trees that look in the far distance
like tufts of frizzly hair upon the Giantstone's poll. From the midst of
these rose (when these records were made) two pine trees. Their tall
trunks were quite bare, their bushy branches interlocked closely, and
thus was left a goodly sized opening, through which at that time of the
year the sun was first seen of mornings coming down into the valley. The
fairies called this the Gate of the Sun, and it was to visit four sister
Elves who kept this gate that Madam Breeze had now come. The gate stood
wide open, for the sunshine was already gone through to the town and
hills beyond. In a snug little cave in the limestone front of the hill,
a sort of "mouth" to the Giantstone's face, the four Elves lived.

Lawe followed as briskly as possible, swung himself from bough to bough
of the overhanging shrubbery, landed upon a narrow ledge, and found his
way to the mouth of the Cave of the Clouds. Madam Breeze, now expanded
in bodily form to goodly size, had already entered and was bustling
around the place calling for the sisters.

"Hi! Cirrus! Ho, Stratus! Here, here--where are you?--Wheeze!"

The dead d