So Dame Grey and the children chased the Elf till they were hot and tired, and till the sun went down; and by and by they gave up, and all went home to let Martha wash their soiled hands and faces.
It was a warm and pleasant night, and before very long all the children were fast asleep.
"Within a very little nook, Toody always slept alone, Its strip of window stole a look Over the lawn and hayrick-cone.
Within the open lattice crept Some jasmine from the cottage wall, And to the breathing of her sleep, Softly swayed, with rise and fall.
But something else comes creeping in, As softly, from the starry night-- The Elf!--'tis he!--first peeping in, Now like a moth doth he alight.
He trips up to the little bed, And near it hangs a full-blown rose; Then in the middle of the flower Places a light that gleams and glows.
It is a glowworm from the lea, And lighting up the rose's heart, A fairy grot it seems to be, Where dream-thoughts live and ne'er depart.
And now the Elf once more is gone Into the woodlands wild, Leaving his blessing thus to shine Upon the sleeping child."
A long, long time ago there lived in a little hut in the midst of a bare, brown, lonely moor an old woman and a young girl. The old woman was withered, sour-tempered, and dumb. The young girl was as sweet and as fresh as an opening rosebud, and her voice was as musical as the whisper of a stream in the woods in the hot days of summer. The little hut, made of branches woven closely together, was shaped like a bee-hive. In the center of the hut a fire burned night and day from year's end to year's end, though it was never touched or tended by human hand. In the cold days and nights of winter it gave out light and heat that made the hut cozy and warm, but in the summer nights and days it gave out light only. With their heads to the wall of the hut and their feet toward the fire were two sleeping-couches--one of plain woodwork, in which slept the old woman; the other was Finola's. It was of bog-oak, polished as a looking-glass, and on it were carved flowers and birds of all kinds that gleamed and shone in the light of the fire. This couch was fit for a Princess, and a Princess Finola was, though she did not know it herself.