“The other is not exactly a person,” David began, slowly, “not exactly. Say, did you ever see a fairy?”
A look of amazement filled the face of the trapper. It seemed to well up from his eyes and burst forth from his mouth.
“You mean the little people?” he asked at last. “The nixies and the dwarfs and the kobolds, that live under the earth and play pranks on us unsuspecting mortals?”
David nodded.
“Sort of. Have you ever seen one?”
The trapper shook his head vehemently.
“Well, I have!” And without in the least understanding why he was doing it David told the story of the locked-out fairy.
When he had finished, the trapper was smiling again.
“Ah, the poor manikin! And here there are three, five, seven of us, all locked out from our homelands; and here was I, Nicholas Bassaraba, thinking I was the only one to feel the homesickness. Bah! Sometimes a man is a fool!”
He thought a minute.