Jack took one of the spades—it was small, and was made of silver; but the other Jack said with scorn:
“I shall be a king when I am old enough, and must I dig like a clown?”
“As you please,” said the black fairy, and walked away.
Then they all observed that a brown woman was standing there; and she stepped up and whispered in the boy-king’s ear. As he listened his sullen face became good tempered, and at last he said, in a gentle tone, “Jack, I’m quite ready to begin if you are.”
“But where are we to dig?” asked Jack.
“There,” said a white fairy, stepping up and setting her foot on the grass just under the little hole. “Dig down as deep as you can.”
So Mopsa and the crowd stood back, and the two boys began to dig; and greatly they enjoyed it, for people can dig so fast in Fairyland.
Very soon the hole was so deep that they had to jump into it, because they could not reach the bottom with their spades. “This is very jolly indeed,” said Jack, when they had dug so much deeper that they could only see out of the hole by standing on tiptoe.
“Go on,” said the white fairy; so they dug till they came to a flat stone, and then she said, “Now you can stamp. Stamp on the stone, and don’t be afraid.” So the two Jacks began to stamp, and in such a little time that she had only half turned her head round, the flat stone gave way, for there was a hollow underneath it, and down went the boys, and utterly disappeared.
Then, while Mopsa and the crowd silently looked on, the white fairy lightly pushed the clods of earth towards the hole with the side of her foot, and in a very few minutes the hole was filled in, and that so completely and so neatly, that when she had spread the turf on it, and given it a pat with her foot, you could not have told where it had been. Mopsa said not a word, for no fairy ever interferes with a stronger fairy; but she looked on earnestly, and when the white stranger smiled she was satisfied.