The Brownies and Prince Florimel

A M

f Queen Titania's fairy kingdom, about a hundred leagues as flies the crow

d information that Dragonfel intended to make t

s trying to make trouble for ever

ayed croquet, and he was always claiming wickets that he never made. He did not go to Sunday School, either.

r would have missed what he might have given away had he

bination mine in which were diamonds, rubies, sapphires, emeralds,

uch as the Burial of Good Intentions, or the Failure in Eden, instead of climbing on some rock to set off firecrackers, burn Roman candles, or discharge toy cannon, he delighted in burning Bank Bon

times, through alarms of fire, explosions, or escaping gas, wh

of being roasted, the third of a cave-in where all would b

ily at work, without regard for Union hour

struggled at the wheelbarrows or mine-carts, either pushing or pulling, with their unreasonable loads piled high in the air, an

lds all stuck together with cement. There were no opals, because Dragonfel thought they were unlucky. If you could have pried off any one of them

uld recall the exact date of its last eruption, for Dragonfel stubbornly insisted upon running his business without an almanac. There

play, so he had taken the precaution to buy an old-fashioned fire-engine which was installed conveniently at hand in a building over whose doors was th

elf up after the authentic portraits of that disreputable person. He was very tall indeed, with almost a scarlet countenance, and he wore a long, flowing cl

such as Boundingbore, Mandrake, Wolfinger, Grouthead, Snoutpimple, and the like, and whenever they did s

prites was awful. It was a good thing for them that the officers of the S

inspection of the mine. He had descended through a secret passage, and wa

tures in tattered clothes, were digging away with their raw, bruised fingers at the sides of earth an

h a king's ransom, lay piled about carelessly in heaps. The opals when they were disc

great satisfaction, and asked Gro

re they

s ago, kin

ter," though whether this was

eminds me of my own dinner. Boundingbore, tell the cook I want turtle soup, spiced venison pastries,

, but Grouthead snapped his long snake-whip so that it sounded like a pistol-sh

onfel's bidding, and Snoutpi

ere is very bad

ake me ill if I were obliged to remain, so as I have a proper r

t, he went on his way, while Grouthead snapped his whip to incite

the bracing air that had a salt tang of the sea in it. Out in the harbor there tossed a galleon on

f at it with inter

r. They are getting altogether too good, and must be stopped. But let u

tion, except some mermaids who were above the waves, engaged in

ht across the sea to tell a fairy, who told the other fairies. Dragonfel with his big, clumsy, lumbering cohorts strode on to the palace that w

cking out from each side of his nose

with smirks before him, while Dragonfel with what he thought to be the quintessence of

, "has anyone been here

ened to assure him. "No one has been he

h a shudder. "I can't get their notes ou

ding in all directions from his grotesque body, came crawling toward him. Straightway Dragonfel sprang up from the throne, wh

and gleefully rubbed his hands together as t

ing voice from somewhere within the horrid cr

a tone of admiration not unmixed with relief. "

he Red Spirit. "See, kind master, I can e

ance, and then almost immediately afterward s

y. "You can be of great assistance to

the better,

nted toward a window that gave a

er word the hideous object started to crawl off by means of his myriad tentacles, and all