“Yes,” said dame Trot, “and glad am I thou hast saved us the trouble of asking thee.”
“A good lad,” remarked Pansy to Gredel, “but he must look about him.”
“Truly,” said Satchel. “And, above all, he must pick up everything he comes across, when he can do so without robbing a neighbor, and he may steal all his neighbor knows, without depriving the gentleman of anything.”
Then Peterkin, feeling as light as a feather, started off down the hillside, the three old sisters chatting, whispering, and chuckling in a very wonderful manner. So, when they were quite in the valley, Peterkin said, “Please you, I will leave you now, ladies; and many thanks for your coming.” Then he very civilly touched his tattered cap, and was turning on his battered heels, when Sister Trot said, “Stop!” and he turned.
“Peterkin,” she said, “thou art worth loving and thinking about, and for your kindness to us wanderers we must ask you to keep something in remembrance of our visit. Here, take my wonderful stick and believe in it. You know me as Trot, but grown-up men call me the Fairy Work-o’-Day.” Peterkin made his obeisance, and took the stick.
“I will never lose it!” said he.
“You never will,” said Trot, “after once you know how to use it.”
“Well,” said sister Pansy, “I am not to be beaten by my sister, and so here are my spectacles.”
“I shall look very funny in them,” said Peterkin, eyeing them doubtfully.
“Nay; nobody will see them on your nose as you mark them on mine. The world will observe their wisdom in your eyes, but the wires will be invisible. By-the-by, sister Pansy is only my home-name; men call me Fairy See-far; and so be good.”