"There was just enough work and just enough play, and every day
there was a joy. How I should love to come back here again! Now that I
have seen the place, it is hard to leave it."
Then she turned to the flock of doves and said to them--laughing at
herself all the while:
"Won't you fly to father and tell him that I long to come home? I have
wandered long enough in strange places. Ask him if he can't arrange it
so that I may soon turn back to my childhood's home."
The moment she had said this the flock of doves rose and flew away. She
tried to follow them with her eyes, but they vanished instantly. It was
as if the whole white company had dissolved in the shimmering air.
The doves had only just gone when she heard a couple of piercing cries
from the garden, and as she hastened thither she saw a singular sight.
There stood a tiny midget, no taller than a hand's breadth, struggling
with a brown owl. At first she was so astonished that she could not
move. But when the midget cried more and more pitifully, she stepped up
quickly and parted the fighters. The owl swung herself into a tree, but
the midget stood on the gravel path, without attempting either to hide
or to run away.
"Thanks for your help," he said. "But it was very stupid of you to let
the owl escape. I can't get away from here, because she is sitting up in
the tree watching me.
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