All the dwarfs applauded. Bee looked at her sore feet and was silent.
She was relieved to hear there were no wild beasts in the country. In all other matters she relied on the friendship of the dwarfs.
Already they were constructing the stretcher. Those who had axes were hacking away at the stems of two young pines.
This revived his idea in the head of Rug.
"If, instead of a stretcher," he said, "we built a cage?"
But he raised a unanimous protest. Tad, looking at him with contempt, exclaimed:
"Rug, you are more like a man than a dwarf. But this, at least, is to the credit of our race that the wickedest of the dwarfs is also the stupidest."
Meanwhile, the work went on. The dwarfs leapt in the air to reach branches which they cut in their flight, and out of which they neatly built a lattice chair. Having covered it with moss and dry leaves, they made Bee sit there; then, all together, they seized the two poles, up! hoisted it on their shoulders, and swung off to the mountain.
CHAPTER IX
TELLS FAITHFULLY THE WELCOME GIVEN BY
KING LOC TO BEE OF THE CLARIDES