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court, when the old woman raised her shrill voice—

“‘What ho, my sons! come here and carry home the harvest.’

“No sooner had she spoken, than the two little dwarfs darted out of the neighbouring thicket.

“‘Idle boys!’ cried the mother, ‘what have ye done to-day to help our living?’

“‘I have been to the city,’ said Spy, ‘and could see nothing. These are hard times for us—everybody minds their business so contentedly since that cobbler came; but here is a leathern doublet which his page threw out of the window; it’s of no use, but I brought it to let you see I was not idle.’ And he tossed down Spare’s doublet, with the merry leaves in it, which he had carried like a bundle on his little back.

“To explain how Spy came by it, I must tell you that the forest was not far from the great city where Spare lived in such high esteem. All things had gone well with the cobbler till the king thought that it was quite unbecoming to see such a worthy man without a servant. His majesty, therefore, to let all men understand his royal favour toward Spare, appointed one of his own pages to wait upon him. The name of this youth was Tinseltoes, and, though he was the seventh of