“I will call to-morrow noon;
Then perhaps I’ll get the spoon!”
He went off muttering to himself, and shaking his cross old head as he went away.
Now the little dwarf was not at all afraid. He said, “I will hide my spoon in a safe place.”
Then he put on the red necklace and the blue necklace and the gold necklace, and he said, “When I meet the Fairy Queen I will give her a new necklace every day.”
Just then the little dwarf heard a great flapping of wings. He looked out and he saw one hundred crows.
Old Cross-Patch had sent the crows to eat up the little dwarf’s corn!
The crows ate all night, and till noon the next day.
Then they flapped their wings and went away, and old Cross-Patch came and said,