“Now, when people fight they must be fed, and the cheapest thing to feed them on is bread. A part of the army camped near the town where the baker lived, and there was a great demand for bread. The baker’s oven was not a large one, and by running it day and night he could only bake three hundred loaves.
“He and his wife baked until they were tired out. They told Sparkle Spry to watch the oven so that the bread wouldn’t burn, and to wake them when it was brown. They were so tired that Sparkle Spry was sorry for them, and he wondered why he wasn’t big enough to take their places, if only for one day and night. While he was thinking and wishing, he saw something moving. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, and then he saw an old man, no bigger than a broomstick, and no taller than a teacup, peeping from behind the oven.
HE SAW AN OLD MAN, NO BIGGER THAN A BROOMSTICK
“‘Are they all gone?’ he whispered, coming forward a little way.
“‘All who?’ asked Sparkle Spry.
“‘The old ones—the big man and the fat woman.’
“‘They have gone to bed,’ said Sparkle Spry. ‘I can call them!’
“‘No, no,’ cried the old man. ‘They are such fools! They don’t know what is good for them. I have been waiting for years to get a chance to show them how to bake bread. Once I showed myself to the man, and he thought I was a snake; once to the woman, and she thought I was a rat. What fools they are!’
“‘Who are you?’ inquired Sparkle Spry. He didn’t like to hear his friends abused.