s, and more than once she heard the sound of not far off
trickling water. It was all strangely beautiful, and she would greatly
have enjoyed and admired it had not her mind been so full of the queer
fascinating idea of the blue dwarfs.

At last--she had wandered about for some time--Olive began to feel
tired.

"I may as well sit down a little," she thought; "I have lots of time to
get back. This seems the very heart of the forest. They are just as
likely to be seen here as anywhere else."

So Olive ensconced herself in a comfortable corner, her back against the
root of a tree, which seemed hollowed out on purpose to serve as an
arm-chair. She thought at first she would read a little, but the light
was already slightly waning, and the tree shadows made it still fainter.
Besides, Olive had plenty to think of--she did not require any
amusement. Queer little noises now and then made themselves heard--once
or twice it really sounded as if small feet were pattering along, or as
if shrill little voices were laughing in the distance; and with each
sound, Olive's heart beat faster with excitement--not with fear.

"If I sit very still," she thought, "who knows what I may see? Of
course, it would be much nicer and prettier if the dwarfs were quite
tiny--not like the little man we saw in the street at that place--I
forget the name--for he was not pretty at all--but like the blue dwarfs
at the manufactory. But that, I suppose, is impossible, for they would
be really like fairies. But they might be something between: not so big
as the little man, and yet bigger than the blue dwarfs."

And then Olive grew a little confused in trying to settle in her mind
how big, or how small rather, it was possible or impossible for a nation
of dwarfs to be. She thought it over till she hardly seemed sure what
she was trying to decide. She kept saying to herself, "Any way, they
could not but be a good deal bigger than my thumb! What does that mean?
Perhaps it means more in German measures than in English, perhaps----"

[Illustration: THE BLUE DWARFS

"They were sliding down the branches of the tree in all directions." P.
195]

But what was that that suddenly hit her on the nose? Olive looked up,
a very little inclined to be offended; it is not a pleasant thing to be
hit on the nose; could it be Rex come behind her suddenly, and playing
her a trick? Just as she was thinking this, a second smart tap on the
nose startled her still more, and thi