They picked up their dinner pails and walked a long way. Suddenly they saw a light twinkling in the distance. The light came from a little wee house in the woods. One of the Babies rapped at the door and a little dwarf came out and said,
“We have bedrooms five and twenty,
And of food we have a plenty;
Kindly step in, please, to-night,
By this ray of candlelight!”
The Ink-Bottle Babies stepped inside, and they saw five and twenty little dwarfs sitting at a table, eating soup with their five and twenty little spoons. The little dwarfs got up politely and offered their seats to the Babies and they sang,
“Ink-Bottle Babies, ’tis very fine,
With the magic pitcher at last to dine.”
Then the Ink-Bottle Babies started to eat some soup, but one little dwarf ran around and poured something into each soup dish out of the magic pitcher. One plate of soup was changed to jelly and one plate was changed to ice cream and so it went all round the table!