, and they
hoped that before it was gone, John and Peter would find work and
would be getting more money.

The fairies followed them, filled with more and more wonder. For miles
they followed, and then for more miles. It was not that the distance
troubled them. They could have gone a hundred times as far without
thinking of being tired. But they could scarcely believe their eyes
when they saw these never-ending stone roads and these never-ending
rows of stone and brick houses, all built so that they touched one
another. They could not understand how people could live so close
together, nor why they should want to do it, if they could. Perhaps
you have never thought of it, but it is really true that the ways of
mortals are just as wonderful to fairies as the ways of fairies are to
mortals.

Indeed, the place where they found themselves at last was not a
pleasant one for fairies. It was two places, in fact, but they were so
much alike that there was nothing to choose between them. A tenement
had been found for the O'Briens, up many flights of stairs, in a house
with many other tenements. There was barely enough room in it for them
to live, though it was better, in that respect, than their old cabin
in Ireland. The stairs and the passage were far from clean, and they
led down to a street that was just as far from clean.

It was hard all over with square stones, which had sunk, in places,
and made hollows, which were filled with muddy water. Lean cats
scuttled about here and there, and ran away, if anybody came near
them, as if they expected to have stones thrown at them, and then,
when the danger seemed past, they rummaged in the ash-barrels for
scraps of meat or fish or bread. The people who lived in the houses
sat on the doorsteps and on the curb-stones, and chattered and
laughed and quarrelled and slept. The sun shone into the street, but
it could not shine between the houses. A breeze blew up from the East
River, which was not far away, but the air was none too fresh, for all
that. The place that had been found for the Sullivans was in another
street, not far away. It was much the same, as I have said, but it was
even smaller, for there were only two of the Sullivans, and they could
get on with less space.

The fairies were fairly terrified at all this. And was it any wonder?
The poor little Good People! They had been used to a beautiful, bright
hall, to green, fresh grass to dance on in the quiet, misty moonlight