“Then you’ll have to squeeze him out,” said Sir Bodkin. “Take the pincushion and squeeze the top and bottom together carefully, so if he’s there his toe won’t prick your fingers. Many a One-Eyed Fairy has been lost in a pincushion.”
Margaret took up the red tomato pincushion and squeezed it and pinched it.
“Here he is!” she cried as Embroiderer’s head began to poke through the top of the red cloth.
“Deary me, but I’m glad to get out of that place again!” said he taking a deep breath. “You can’t breathe in there and the sawdust gets in your eye, too. I squirmed and wriggled and perhaps I’d have come out the bottom soon. My, but I’m glad you squeezed me out the top!”
“Of course you might have got yourself out, but we should have been frightfully worried,” said Sir Bodkin much relieved to see him again safe and sound.
“Do you feel like helping me to do the rest of these French knots in the tea-cloth?” asked Margaret, putting him through the emery to dust off the sawdust.
“Oh, yes! Some exercise would do me good,” he answered.
Margaret and he worked busily and finished the tea-cloth.
“Do you know that to-morrow will be my birthday?” asked the little girl of the One-Eyed Fairies and their King.
“So it will,” replied Sir Bodkin. “It doesn’t seem a year since we came to live with you, My Lady.”