"Are you? Oh, then you must know my good friend Grim?"
"To be sure I do! He came to see me a few days ago."
Laura thought Grim must be mistaken in his belief that the elves were fond of teasing children, for surely this one had been kind to her, when suddenly she remembered that she had not her staff with her. She jumped up hastily, crying out:
"Oh, my staff! my staff! I must go back and find it."
"Ha! ha!" laughed the elf, evidently amused at her alarm.
"Which way must I go?" asked Laura, anxiously.
"Any way you please, my dear. Is not the honey so good as it was?"
"Oh yes, yes, it is just as nice, and I thank you ever so much for it. Now, please, dear Mr. Elf, let me go for my staff."
"I am not keeping you, am I?" laughed the elf, beginning a strange sort of dance, rubbing his hands together, and giving a series of jerks to the rabbit-skin.
Laura was ready to cry with vexation and alarm, but something seemed to tell her that she must control herself and not let this mischievous creature know how she felt; so, springing to her feet, she said, "I, too, can dance—see," and she waltzed away as if she were in a ball-room.