nt quartz of
the cavern, and now at the tier upon tier of galleries full of busy
little people.

"This is one of our workshops," said Knops, "but not the most important.
Now that you have rested a moment I will take you to that."

Line upon line of red and green in rubies and emeralds were at the base
of the grotto, and then he found that the emeralds sprang up into long
grasses, and the rubies into flaming roses, and on slender spears were
lilies of pearls and daisies of diamonds, and blending with these were
vines of honeysuckle and strawberries, gleaming with sapphires and topaz
and amethysts, wreathing and flashing up to a ceiling of lapis lazuli
blue as a June sky. The floor was a mosaic of turquoise forget-me-nots
on a turf of Egyptian jasper.

When Leo had looked at all this bewildering beauty, Knops pushed open
the mica door again, and they began to traverse the galleries of the
rock cavern. He was surprised that none of the elves noticed him, nor
even looked at him, and he asked Knops the reason.

"I have rendered you invisible to them, my dear Leo, for two reasons:
one is that you may be undisturbed in your examination of their work,
and the other is that they may not be interrupted; for of course your
presence would be a source of lively interest to them, and yet any
stoppage of work would necessitate punishment."

"Punishment?" repeated Leo, questioningly.

"Oh yes; most of our hardest workers are elves of mischief and it is
only by keeping them thus constantly employed that we prevent disorder.
You have no idea what pranks they play."

"And what is your authority among them?" asked Leo.

"I am one of our King's cabinet; my title is Master Professor. My
learning qualifies me to decide upon the plans of work, where to search
for precious stones, and how best to prepare them for man's finding.
Nothing is more amusing than the wonder and surprise men exhibit at what
they consider their discoveries of minerals and gems, when for ages we
have been arranging them for their clumsy hands."

"How do you do this?"

"Ah! it's a long story. Here you see the result of our long searches,
and were it not for the processes we conduct none of these stones would
ever be found. We can penetrate where man has never been; we can
construct what man has in vain tried to do. Come with me to our
diamond-room: we do not make many, preferring to find them; but as an
interesting scientific experiment we have always liked to