‘Are you Piskey-eyed, Aunt Betsy?’ asked Nannie eagerly.
Her aunt did not answer, and told her little grand-niece to sit up at table and eat her breakfast.
The child was too full of the Little People to eat much breakfast, and the more she thought about them, the more anxious she became to see those dear Wee Folk, who were so very, very kind to her Aunt Betsy.
The next morning Nannie got up ever so early, with the hope of seeing the Piskeys, but, early as it was, Aunt Betsy was down before her. The work was all done, and the table laid for breakfast, as on the previous day.
‘The Piskeys came and did it long before I was up,’ remarked her aunt, not noticing the child’s face of disappointment, glancing round the big kitchen, with its stone-flagged floor, just washed, and looking as blue as the tors, and up at the dresser, with its china looking as if it had been washed in sunshine, it was so sparkling; and as for the tall brass candlesticks on the high mantelpiece, they were dazzling in their brightness.
‘It isn’t fair that the Little People should come in and do all your work when I wanted to help,’ said Nannie.
‘I am used to Piskeys, but not to children,’ returned the old woman. ‘If you really want to do something for me, you shall go out on the moors and pick me a nosegay of wild flowers. It will make the kitchen look nice, and will complete the work of the Piskeys.’
Nannie was willing, as she had nothing to do, and she put on her sun-bonnet to go.
‘The clover is in blossom,’ said her aunt, as the child was going out at the door, ‘and if you happen to find one with four leaves you may perhaps get Piskey-eyed, and if you also find a Wee’s Nest[1] you will have the good fortune to see all the Little People in Cornwall!’
‘A Wee’s Nest is a thing that is never found,’ said Nannie; ‘but I’ll look for a four-leaved clover till I find it. P’raps you found a four-leaved clover, and that is how you can see the Piskeys,’ looking round at her aunt with a smile.