"And considering the circumstances," went on the second.
Then, just as Olive supposed they were going to tell her their names, they stopped short and looked at her.
"I beg your pardon," she began again, after waiting a minute or two to see if they had nothing else to say; "I don't quite understand."
"Nor do we," they replied promptly, speaking for the first time both together.
"Do you mean you don't know what my name is?" said she. "It's Olive, Olive!" for the dwarfs stood staring as if they had not heard her. "Olive!" she repeated for the third time.
"Green?" asked the first.
"No!" said Olive. "Of course not! Green is a very common name—at least——"
"But you called us 'blue,'" said the second; and it really was a relief to hear him finish a sentence comfortably by himself, only Olive felt very puzzled by what he said.
"How do you know?" she said. "How could you tell I called you the blue dwarfs?" and then another thought suddenly struck her. How very odd it was that the dwarf spoke such good English! "I thought you were German," she said.
"How very amusing!" said the dwarfs, this time again speaking together.