'Ho! ho! ho!' laughed the Old Man. 'What a sensible young man you are! But don't trouble yourself about this. My duty consists in being where people want to sleep, so you only help me to do what I ought to do. You want to sleep, don't you?'
'Yes, Mr. Old Man.'
'And so I will put you to sleep if you like, soundly.' Then the Little Old Man began to blink with evident enjoyment, and to yawn slowly and loudly. Somebody immediately yawned in answer, and Basil, who had also a great desire to yawn, looked around. He saw to his great astonishment that at the foot of his bed sat a new old man. It was he who had yawned in answer to the first Old Man.
This Old Man much resembled the other, only he was a little smaller. His jacket and trousers were made of lilac poppy petals instead of red ones, and he had no light on his head.
'Listen, Basil,' said the little lilac-coloured creature, and with a gentle voice, like a mother telling fairy tales to her child, he began to speak:
'A gnat was born on the moors. It stood on its thin little legs, it spread its wings, and thought to itself: "It is time to fly after some booty! If I meet a man or a bull, I will eat him up."
'The gnat flew away, spread its little legs in the wind, and vanished. Hardly anybody would notice it—so small, and thin, and weak it was. Nevertheless, as it flew, it blew its own trumpets—
'"Fi-fo-fum!
Here I come!
I will slay