illy
human beings. We useful people scorn them. Now imps might be said to
belong to the same family were it not for the proofs we have of their
existence. They are everlastingly getting children into trouble by
suggesting things to them they never would have thought of--"

"Such as what?"

"Do you suppose I am going to tell you? No, indeed; they can do it fast
enough for themselves. Persons who take too much wine are their most
constant companions; they pounce upon them and twitch and tease and
torment them until the poor wine-bibber trembles from head to foot. They
won't let him sleep or eat or think, and fairly drive him crazy. Oh,
imps are really to be dreaded! But I must now begin my second story."

PAZ'S SECOND STORY

"There was to be a grand birthday festival among the Fays, who inhabit
the tropics. The wind fairies had brought us news of it as well as
urgent invitations for our royal family to be present; but so deeply
engrossed was our King at that moment in supplying the oil wells of
Pennsylvania with petroleum that he could not absent himself. The Queen
never goes from home without her liege lord.

"The princes and princesses were all too young, and could not be allowed
to leave their lessons; so the regrets were inscribed on lotus leaves,
and sent by special messenger--a bird of the Cypselina family. He was a
great sooty-black fellow, with a tinge of green in his feathers,
strong, well able to fly, as his family generally do from America to
Asia. But the gift could not be intrusted to him. I was chosen as bearer
of that.

"Much discussion had taken place as to what this gift should be. It was
desirable that nothing ordinary should be offered, for the Fays are, as
a rule, fastidious. Gems they possess in abundance. Flowers are so
common that their beds are made of them. Their books are 'the running
brooks,' and their art treasures hang on every bough. The Queen had
woven a veil of lace with her own fingers; it was filmy and exquisite,
but my heart sank within me when she declared that nothing less than a
wreath of snow-flakes must accompany it. To obtain this wreath and carry
it to the Fays as a birthday gift was to be my duty.

"How should I accomplish it? I dared not suggest the difficulties, for
at once I should have been displaced, and another elf chosen for the
performance of this arduous task. Besides, if it could be accomplished
by any one, I must be that person, having always been unwilling e