st
expect to be shot. It's all in the day's work and must be endured. But
for one's body to go to the milliner's is intolerable. Intolerable.' The
little creature suddenly swallowed its rage, and continued more sweetly:
'Now, as to the Flamp. What you want, Toby, is a Flamp compass.'

'What's that?' Tobene asked.

'Why, an ordinary compass points to the north, doesn't it? Well, a Flamp
compass points to the Flamp,' said the wren. 'Then you can find the
way.'

'But where are we to get one?' was Tobene's very natural question.

'The hedgehog makes them,' said the wren. 'On the other side of this
dell you will see a line of bushes. The hedgehog lives under the
fourteenth. Knock on the ground three times and he'll come out. Now I
must be off. Good-morning.' And with these words the fiery-crested wren
flitted away.

At the fourteenth bush the children knocked three times on the ground.

'Well?' said a surly voice.

'Please we want a Flamp compass,' said Tilsa.

At once the hedgehog appeared. 'I beg your pardon,' he said in softer
tones, 'but I mistook you for the rates and taxes, or I shouldn't have
spoke so short. I wasn't expecting customers so early. A Flamp compass?
Why, I don't think I have one in stock. You see, since the Flamps died
off, the demand has been so small that very few are made. There's my
own, which has been in the family for years, but I shouldn't care to
part with that except at a high price.'

'How much would you call a high price, sir?' Tilsa inquired a little
anxiously.

'Well, I couldn't let it go for anything less than a Ribston pippin, or
its value,' said the hedgehog. 'But I'm open to offers,' he continued.

'Toby,' said Tilsa, 'turn out your pockets.'

Tobene did so, and Tilsa examined the produce with a doubtful face.

'Please, sir,' she said, 'would you like for the Flamp compass, which
you say is an old one, a piece of string, two marbles, some
toffee--although I'm afraid it's rather mixed up with string--eight
nuts, a screw, a peg-top, and a knife?'

'The knife will be useful,' said Toby, who was looking on a little
ruefully, but convinced that Tilsa, as usual, was doing the right thing
and therefore must be supported, 'in case any one tries to snub you.'

'Ah, you needn't trouble about that,' said the hedgehog. 'It's a
difficult matter to snub me. You see,' he added, 'by the nature of his
construction a hedgehog is not easily sat upon. But to business.
Considering that the