“I should like to know how you expect to help me,” said Lizzy.
“We shall see;” and the woodpecker flew down;—but where is he? Lizzy looked about, and she could not see him anywhere.
“Ha! ha! ha!” laughed a voice close by her ear; and Lizzy turned, and saw a pretty little fairy figure standing close beside her. “I was only acting the woodpecker for my amusement. We fairies are very fond of masquerading.”
“Then I cannot see the woodpecker’s nest,” said Lizzy. “It is too bad to disappoint me so, when I did so want to see his pretty eggs.”
“Oh, if you wish to see some pretty eggs. I can show you some as pretty as the woodpecker’s. I have hundreds of them stowed away in a woodpecker’s hole, up in this very tree. I had come here this morning to deposit some, and this is what made me think of acting the woodpecker just now.”
“Where did you get so many eggs? Do you rob birds’ nests?”
“Oh, no, indeed! they are not birds’ eggs; they come down in the rain, and we use the large flower-cups to catch them in.”
“And what will hatch from them?”
“Ah, that is more than I can tell as yet. I will give you some of them, and they will hatch just such kind of creatures as you tell them to.”