cannot do something
to restore your good spirits again."

At these words Nora danced for joy, and you would never have been able
to guess that she had ever known a downhearted moment. So the dryad
clapped her tiny hands three times, and out of the open door into the
beech-tree stepped a little gnome who came and bowed low before them,
holding in his hands a silver salver on which lay a little pellet.

"How little was the pellet, uncle?"

"Well, what would you say if I told you that it was as small as a
humming bird's egg? Oh, you think it was smaller than that? Well, how
about the seed of a coriander? No? Then I will tell you the truth. It
was as small as the gnat that gets into your eye, that feels as big as
a rat."

So Nora took the pellet from the platter and thanked the gnome kindly
and she ate it down, and no sooner had she swallowed it than she was
no bigger than the dryad herself.

So the dryad took her by the hand and they walked gaily into the
beech-tree door, and the door shut behind them.

They went down and down a lot of winding stairs that were lighted only
by small windows in the bark of the tree that Nora had never noticed
before and could never find afterward. It was very cool and pleasant,
for they could hear the sap go singing on its way from the roots up
to the branches and leaves and when a summer shower went by they could
hear the raindrops as they went singing down the trunk outside to the
roots. After they had reached the foot of the stairs they walked for
a long way through a cool corridor. It was not quite dark, for Little
People stood at every turn who seemed to be doing what fireflies do
on summer nights in the grass, and each one whistling to himself as
he held his softly shaded lantern aloft. Down the side passages Nora
could see thousands of tiny miners at work. And what do you think they
are doing?

"Digging for gold and diamonds."

They were tending the woodland plants that hang their golden blossoms
in the pathways and carrying up the dewdrops that sparkle like
diamonds from their leaves in the daybreak. And it was pleasant to see
them work, for they were all singing.

By and by Nora and the dryad came to a place where there was a
brighter light ahead, and as they drew nearer Nora could see that they
had come to the bank of the pond that is below Nora's cottage, only
that they were under the surface, looking up through a light so soft
that it cast no shadows. And now the drya