can
nearly guess your presence."

"I am sorry if I have frightened them," said Leo. "Can't you say
something to soothe them? Tell them how lovely their things are. I long
to try and imitate them."

Knops said a few words in a language Leo did not comprehend, and the
little people gathered up their trowels again. But it was time to go,
and Leo had to follow his guides and leave the snow people with more
reluctance than anything he had yet seen.

CHAPTER VII

Knops now led Leo through so many places full of machines and
contrivances which the water-power kept active that he was glad when
they went up a long inclined plane, and came out into a wide gallery
lined with mother-of-pearl, and paved with exquisite sea-shells.

Here was a luxurious couch of beautiful feathers, the plumage of birds
he had never beheld, and he was not sorry to see Paz bringing out
another dozen of tarts for his refreshment. As he ate them, he asked of
Knops, who was peeling a lime, "Have you no women and children among
your elves?"

"Oh yes," said Knops, smiling; "but they are not to be found near our
workshops."

"Where, then, do they live?"

Knops put on an air of mystery as he replied: "I am not permitted to
reveal everything concerning us, dear Leo. Our private life is of no
public interest; but I may tell you that our children are bred entirely
in the open air. Many an empty bird's nest is used as an elf cradle, for
so highly do we esteem pure air, sunshine, and exposure as a means of
making our children hardy, that we even accustom them to danger, and let
them, like the birds, face the fury of the weather."

"And do they all work as you do?"

"They do, not at the same employments, nor is all our labor done by
hand, as you might suppose. The songs which you hear are not all sung by
birds or insects, the crying child has often a pretty tale whispered in
his ear to soothe his grief or passion, and your garden roses are
witness to many a worm in the bud choked by the hand of an elf. But we
have many tribes, and the habits of each are different. I do not conceal
that much trouble is made by some of them. But look at the Indians of
North America and the Afghans of Asia."

Leo was yawning again fearfully, when a little "turn, turn, turn," came
to his ears, and as Knops ceased speaking a band of elves, habited as
troubadours in blue and silver, with long white plumes in their velvet
caps, climbed over the balustrade and began t