"No! No!" said Gillibloom.
But he kept on roaring.
"There, you see!" said the Earth-Woman. "Now I'll tell you something, Gillibloom, and you keep it in your mind until you forget it. The more you cry, the harder it is to stop, and the only way to stop crying is to smile."
"Cry?" said Gillibloom. "Is this Quite Crying? Isn't it Almost Crying?"
"That's as may be," said the Earth-Woman wisely. "Now you come in here with me."
So she carried him into her hut, where it is very dark but light enough to see to do all sorts of wonderful things, and she ironed out his forehead and put a nice polish on it, and she opened his eyes and told them to stay open, and she shut his mouth and told it to stay shut, and when it had really done it, she stretched it very carefully indeed, until it was perhaps two cat's hairs wider than it had been for a long time.
"There!" said she, "I can't do any more until it softens a little. Lie down there, Gillibloom, and think about leaves in spring."
So Gillibloom lay down on a very soft couch that was perhaps rose-leaves and perhaps thistledown and perhaps cornsilk, and when he had lain there a day and a night, the Earth-Woman stretched his mouth a little more, and a little more. And one night she said to him: "Now, Gillibloom, your cure will take quite a long time yet, but you must do the rest of it yourself. And this is what you must do. Whenever you think of crying, you must stretch your mouth just as wide as you can."
"Why, that's what the mortals call smiling," said Gillibloom.
"And you must keep on doing it until you've forgotten to cry. Now. I wish you were in the fairy ring."