“I say! I want to be as small as the gnomes,” he shouted.
There was no result, however, and the children remained as they were.
“Oh! I know,” he cried; “I ought to have the paper that the Ambassador gave me in my hand. Where is it?”
There was a great whispering amongst the gnomes, and at last one of them shouted out—
“We’ve taken it away.”
“What for?” demanded Dick. “It was given to us; you had better give it up at once. What do you mean by it?”
There was another whispered consultation, and then one of the gnomes said, “Let them have it for now,” and the paper was put down upon the ground at Dick’s feet.
Dick stooped down and picked it up, and immediately the children began to dwindle down till they became as small as the little people themselves.
They had no sooner done so than the paper which the Ambassador had given them was suddenly snatched from Dick’s hand and a number of the gnomes surrounded them, dancing about, turning somersaults, playing leap-frog, and capering about in the maddest way.
“Well, you’ve done it now,” said one of them, tauntingly.