PIXIE GAMES
“What did you think of wearing?” asked the Giant.
“Let me see,” said Peggy. “Yes--I think I wish to go as a Fairy, in
pink. What would _you_ like to be?”
“The wishes do work well now!” said the Giant in a gratified voice, for
Peggy stood before him glittering in a rosy spangled frock and gleaming
silver wings, with a star on her forehead and a wand in her hand all
complete. “Well, if you’ll really be so kind as to use up another wish
on me, I think I’d rather like to go as Little Boy Blue.”
“Certainly!” said Peggy, and the next instant the Giant, a good deal
smaller than usual, and dressed all in blue, with a golden horn in his
hand, stood on the plain. Unfortunately, however, his seven-leagued
boots still remained their usual size, and his beard was as long and
curly as ever, which gave him rather a strange appearance.
“_Not_ quite so successful,” he remarked, glancing down at himself.
“However, I shall pass in a crowd, I daresay. And now we _must_ start.
The Pixies will go under the hills, which takes a quarter of the time,
but I daren’t take you that way for fear of spoiling our clothes. Come
along--fly on to my shoulder. That’s right! Shut your eyes and it won’t
seem so far.” And off he walked at a great pace over the hills.
“_Do_ try to remember as we go what ‘Mazing’ means,” said Peggy. “I
wish I knew. It’s such a funny word!”
“I can’t talk or think of anything at present,” said the Giant. “I’ve
got to try and find my way, and it’s no easy matter, I can assure you.”
And a long silence ensued.
“Aren’t we there _yet_?” asked Peggy at last, after they had been
travelling for over a quarter of an hour. She opened her eyes as she
spoke, and then nearly fell off the Giant’s shoulder with astonishment.
For the brown hills had quite disappeared, and in their place
a dazzling white country spread around. And a country filled
with--_could_ it be? Peggy rubbed her eyes, and stared again. Yes.
Filled with _snowmen_! Snowmen towering up in all directions, one
behind the other, hundreds and hundreds of them, and all exactly like
the one Mother and Peggy had made in the garden last winter, with coals
for eyes, and pipes in their mouths!
“Yes, I thought you’d be surprised!” said the Giant, stopping wearily.
“I was. We’ve missed our way somehow, I believe, and it would really
have been better if we _had_ gone under the hills after all. This white
country gets on my nerves. I _must_ have a rest!”
He propped himself up against one of the snowmen as he spoke, and
mopped his face with his red pocket-handkerchief. “Do fly up fairly
high and see if there’s any way out of this,” he implored in an
exhausted voice. “I’ve been walking in and out between the wretched
things for _ages_. There seems no end to them!”
[Illustration: Peggy didn’t mean to do another picture of the fifth
Adventure, but Mother particularly wanted one of the Pixies, so she
had to do this, as the Ball-room one was too difficult to do. The
Pixies are just shouting out, “This is Mazing, this is!” and Peggy is
trying to catch two of them. You can see how tired and giddy the Giant
must have got with wandering about amongst so many Snowmen. He is
just wiping his face with his red handkerchief. Peggy made herself so
=very= ugly by mistake, and didn’t know how to change it.]
Peggy fluttered up and looked North, South, East and West, but alas,
there was nothing but hosts and hosts of snowmen in all directions.
“I believe it’s a trick of those nasty Pixies!” said the Giant angrily
when she returned. “There--look! Wasn’t that one of them?” and he
pointed behind her.
Peggy wheeled round, just in time to see a mischievous Pixie face
peeping from behind a snowman.
“Catch him!” cried the Giant, making a grab and missing. “Oh, now
he’s over there!” as another face peeped at them from quite another
direction.
“This is Mazing, this is,” said a tiny, chuckling voice, and a third
Pixie appeared round another snowman, and disappeared again just as
Peggy thought she had really got him.
“Oh dear!” said the Giant, stopping in dismay. “Don’t you remember you
said you wished you knew what Mazing was? I never took in that it was a
wish till this moment!”
“Why, so I did!” said Peggy. “Gracious me, what a silly game! and that
makes four wishes gone, too. There, _now_ I’ve got him!” and she made a
wild dash to the right, but only succeeded in catching a pointed cap,
and falling full length in the wet snow.
“This is Mazing, this is!” cried out about twenty giggling voices at
once, and heads poked out from behind the snowmen in all directions.
“Oh, I can’t stand this any longer,” said Peggy. “I wish we were at
that party! _Any_ of the other amusements would be better than this
one!”
At once the snowmen all toppled over and melted in a trice, and Peggy
and the Giant found themselves standing in a great Purple Cave full of
rosy light.
All around them danced a multitude of Gnomes, Brownies, Sprites, and
every other kind of unusual creature; and a large company of Pixies in
fancy dress, who had been playing leap-frog in a corner, came pushing
their way through the crowd.
“Oh, you _are_ late!” they cried. “You’ve been Mazing, haven’t you?”
and they all burst into a great roar of laughter.
“You’re not being a bit funny,” said the Giant, turning his back on
them, and “Here come the Naiads!” he whispered to Peggy. “They only
attend the _best_ parties,” and he pointed towards some beautiful tall
ladies in green and blue with water lilies in their hair, who were
walking up the cave towards them, followed by a crowd of handsome
Dryads in brown and yellow.
“Come and play at Flitting,” said one of them, taking Peggy’s and the
Giant’s hands. “Those bad-mannered creatures will improve if you take
no notice of them. We’ll show you how to play,” and up to the ceiling
they all went, and everyone else after them.
Peggy never forgot that wonderful night. When she was tired with
darting round the cavern walls, or hunting for diamonds in the dark,
she skated with a company of very polite Trolls in a beautiful inner
cavern, whose walls were a gleaming mass of rubies. And then the
Pixies, who by this time had remembered their manners, crowned her
Queen of the Revels with great pomp, and led her off to partake of
light refreshments.
These were set out in a great black and yellow cavern which was
entirely lighted by glow-worms, cleverly concealed in full-blown yellow
roses hung from the roof. Peggy was put at the head of the table with
the Giant by her side, and big sugar sweets of every shape and kind
were piled upon their plates.
But no sooner had they finished half their helpings than a sudden shout
of “Back to work!” “Back to work!” sounded from all sides.
The Naiads and Dryads immediately disappeared in a pale green mist,
the Sprites changed into blue smoke, and the next instant Peggy found
herself, with hundreds of silent, hardworking Pixies, digging with
pickaxes in the sides of a cold dark rock, by the light of a solitary
glow-worm!
The Giant, with his blue sleeves rolled up, was working diligently by
her side.
“Oh, what _are_ we doing? Where’s the party gone?” cried Peggy in great
distress.
“Over,” said the Giant without stopping; and at every blow of his axe
great pieces of gold fell out of the rock. “_Now_ we’ve got to work!”
“Oh, but this _is_ dull,” said Peggy. “And I know Nannie wouldn’t like
me to get hot with my bad cold,” she went on primly, quite forgetting
that she had not thought of that at all, during the games just now.
Then seeing the Giant was busily knocking some emeralds out of the rock
without taking any notice of what she said, “Oh, I hate the horrid
place; I wish I was back in bed!” she went on crossly, just to see
whether he’d answer that or not, and throwing her pickaxe down with a
crash....
“But you _are_, Miss Peggy,” said Nurse’s voice soothingly, and Peggy
found herself once more in the nursery, with the blankets and sheets
all tumbling off in a most uncomfortable way. “There, that’s better!
Now you must try and go to sleep again. The hot-water bottle’s just
tumbled out. I expect that’s what woke you.”
“Why, Nannie, I didn’t _really_ mean to come back so soon!” said Peggy.
“I never thanked them for my nice time, or anything!”
“You’ve been dreaming you were at the party next door,” said Nurse.
“That’s because you heard the music, I expect. Now you mustn’t talk any
longer. To-morrow night Mother will be home!”
“Why, so she will! Good-night, Giant dear,” said Peggy, and turning
over fell sound asleep at once.
“She must be feverish, I’m afraid, yet she _looks_ quite well,” said
Nurse rather uneasily, stealing softly from the room.
And all night long on Peggy’s thumb the green stone winked and twinkled
at the fire.