iamonds could light up anything, for I don't
understand it myself. Let us talk about it together and try to decide.
Suppose you try the experiment. Some night, after dark, take all the
diamonds you have--every one of them--and carry them into a dark room
and spread them out, and see if they light up the room at all. I am
sure that you will find that they do not. On the contrary, if you let
go of them, you will have to go and get a light to hunt for them by.
But I suppose the fairies have some other kind of diamonds than ours,
or else they know some other way of using the same kind. Sometimes
they use fireflies, caught in spider-web nets, but these are generally
for out of doors. To light up their houses they almost always use
diamonds.

There were two tiny bits of turf fire in the rath. One of them was at
one end of the hall, where the King sat, for the King to light his
pipe by, and the other was at the other end, for the other fairy men
to light their pipes by. Fairies do not like fire, as a rule, and they
would never have any more of it about than they could help. But I know
that they must have had some, for I know that Irish fairies smoke
pipes, and how could they light them unless they kept a little fire on
hand?

Now, I know what you will say to that. You will say: "If they could
light a room with diamonds, why couldn't they light pipes with them?"
Well, that is not very easy to answer, but I feel sure that even a
fairy would never think of lighting a pipe with a diamond. I have
owned up already that I don't know exactly how they light rooms with
them, but it is easier for me to imagine a diamond giving light than
giving heat. Isn't it for you? Now, be honest about it.

At one end of the hall sat the King and the Queen, on their thrones.
Near them were half a dozen fairy men who were playing on pipes and
fiddles. All over the floor there were dozens and scores of fairies,
men and women, dancing to the music. All around the walls stood or sat
many more of them, looking at the dancers, and now and then applauding
and shouting at particular ones, or talking together, or simply
smoking their pipes.

Suddenly two fairies rushed into the hall, with a little sound like
the noise of a humming-bird's wings when it passes close to you. From
the lower end of the hall, where they came in, they went straight
through the crowd to where the King and Queen sat. They dropped on
their knees before them for an instant, and then