“Better not, better not,” warned Jack. “That is a fairy tub and will go to pieces if you touch it.”
By that time the little elves had it in place, and they smiled their thanks to Mary Frances as they wiped the perspiration from their foreheads with tiny handkerchiefs made of colored Autumn leaves.
Jack jumped down from his pulpit.
“That will do, attendants,” he said. “Thank you,” and the little elves ran away.
“We have here,” he continued, “a fairy view of the way in which plants grow. Come, Bet!”
With that, both the little fairies sprang to the top of the tub, and a wonderful thing happened.
The tub and the tree began to grow so fast that before you could count three, they were as high as the girls’ knees, and before you could count seven, the top of the tree was even with Eleanor’s head.
“That’s tall enough, tree,” cried Jack, and both tub and tree stopped growing.
“Can you see, young ladies,” he asked as he bent over the side; “can you see the roots of the magic tree through the glass?”
The girls could see them plainly.