ittle people. "The same old story. They told
you that to hide their ignorance, my child."

"I'm thirteen years old," declared Dick, haughtily, for he did not at
all approve of being called a child.

"Oh, are you indeed!" was the reply, amid shouts of laughter. "I suppose
you think yourself quite a man, and are consequently too old to believe
in the fairies, who are more than thirteen thousand years old."

"You know you used to believe in them, Dick," interposed Marjorie.
"Don't you remember how we used to enjoy that lovely fairy book Aunt May
gave us, and dear old 'Alice in Wonderland,' and----"

"That was years ago," interrupted Dick, turning very red. "I've had it
all explained to me since that, and I don't read those kind of books
now."

"Do you read Shakespeare?" demanded one of the little folks.

"Some of it," replied Dick, doubtfully.

"Have you ever read 'Midsummer Night's Dream?'"

"Oh, yes! Jolly! Titania, and Oberon, and Puck, and all that lot, you
know; and the jolly little chaps that----"

"Hullo! I thought you didn't believe in fairies," interrupted some one.

"Oh, well, that's different, you know; that's Shakespeare, and--and----"

"And what? I suppose you'll admit that he believed in them?"

"Well, I suppose so," said Dick, grudgingly; "but I----"

"But you imagine yourself to be cleverer than Shakespeare."

"Ha--ha--ha!" laughed a chorus of little people, derisively.

"Look here! I'll tell you what it is," said the first speaker, "you have
evidently been taught by some of those wise old know-nothings, who have
succeeded in making you as clever as themselves, and it is our intention
to show you how ignorant you all are. I think you will believe in
fairies before we have done with you. Now, we are gnomes, and have just
completed a subterranean passage between here and the land of the little
Panjandrum."

[Illustration: "Four extraordinary figures came in sight."]

The word _little_ was spoken so softly as to be quite indistinct. "The
what!" cried Dick.

"Sh! the _little_ Panjandrum," said the gnome, speaking the word almost
inaudibly.

"What do you say it like that for?" asked the children.

"Well, you see, his Magnificence and Serene Importance is somewhat
sensitive on the subject; there is the GRAND Panjandrum, you know."

"Oh, I see," said Dick, "and the other chap doesn't like to take a back
seat, that's it, is it? Well, who is the Little Panjandrum, anyhow?"

"Sh! sh!" cried