to the great delight of all who saw it.

But the riding was very funny, and Eva soon forgot everything else in
watching the gay creatures mount their various horses and fly or gallop
round the ring while the teacher--a small fellow in a gay cap and green
suit--stood on the moss-mound, cracking a long whip and telling them how
to ride in the best fairy fashion.

Several lady elves learned to mount butterflies gracefully and float
where they liked, sitting firmly when the winged horses alighted on the
flowers. The boy elves preferred field-mice, who went very swiftly
round and round, with saddles of woven grass and reins of yellow
bindweed, which looked well on the little gray creatures, who twinkled
their bright eyes and whisked their long tails as if they liked it.

But the best fun of all was when the leaping began; and Eva quite
trembled lest some sad accident should happen; for grasshoppers were led
out, and the gallant elves leaped over the highest flower-tops without
falling off.

It was very funny to see the queer hoppers skip with their long legs,
and when Puck, the riding-master, mounted, and led a dozen of his pupils
a race round the track, all the rest of the elves laughed aloud and
clapped their hands in great glee; for Puck was a famous fairy, and his
pranks were endless.

Eva was shouting with the rest as the green horses came hopping by, when
Puck caught her up before him, and away they raced so swiftly that her
hair whistled in the wind and her breath was nearly gone. A tremendous
leap took them high over the little hill and landed Eva in a tall
dandelion, where she lay laughing and panting as if on a little yellow
sofa, while Trip and her mates fanned her and smoothed her pretty hair.

"That was splendid!" she cried. "I wish I was a real fairy, and always
lived in this lovely place. Everything will seem so ugly and big and
coarse when I go home I shall never be happy again."

"Oh, yes, you will," answered Trip, "for after this visit you will be
able to hear and see and know what others never do, and that will make
you happy and good. You believed in us, and we reward all who love what
we love, and enjoy the beautiful world they live in as we do."

"Thank you," said Eva. "If I can know what the birds sing and the brook,
and talk with the flowers, and see faces in the sky, and hear music in
the wind, I won't mind being a child, even if people call me queer."

"You shall understand many lovely thin