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On hearing this all the elves gave a loud cheer. “You have got it,” they cried. “Ah, what a fine thing it is to have a mind like that!”

“If my poor dear son had not imprudently gone over the top looking after a flying fish, and so been suffocated, he would have grown up just such another,” said a lady elf with a sigh.

“With such a mind as that,” said another old lady elf solemnly, “one could rule countries or take cities.”

On this, the old elf who had made the suggestion bowed all round and smiled pleasantly, for he was a great favourite with the lady elves, and prided himself on his good manners.

“We now have to think,” he went on, “how this can be done, for reflections are such difficult things to keep under water when one has got them, and rise to the top like bubbles. We must make a number of sand ropes to catch it with, and all pull it down together at a given signal.”

“But,” said a very young elf, “she still will be able to go and look at herself in her looking-glass.”

On hearing this the elves all burst into a scornful laugh, and would have scolded the young elf for talking about what he did not understand;