“Take a chair,” said the Fairy, “and I will ring for the wand of speech.”
The Dwarf sat down, and the Fairyman rang the little brass bell, and in came a little weeny Dwarf no bigger than your hand.
“Bring me the wand of speech,” said the Fairy, and the weeny Dwarf bowed three times and walked out backward, and in a minute he returned, carrying a little black wand with a red berry at the top of it, and, giving it to the Fairy, he bowed three times and walked out backward as he had done before.
The little man waved the rod three times over the Dwarf, and struck him once on the right shoulder and once on the left shoulder, and then touched his lips with the red berry, and said: “Speak!”
The Dwarf spoke, and he was so rejoiced at hearing the sound of his own voice that he danced about the room.
“Who are you at all, at all?” said he to the Fairy.
“Who is yourself?” said the Fairy. “But come, before we have any talk let us have something to eat, for I am sure you are hungry.”
Then they sat down to table, and the Fairy rang the little brass bell twice, and the weeny Dwarf brought in two boiled snails in their shells, and when they had eaten the snails he brought in a dormouse, and when they had eaten the dormouse he brought in two wrens, and when they had eaten the wrens he brought in two nuts full of wine, and they became very merry, and the Fairyman sang “Cooleen Dhas,” and the Dwarf sang “The Little Blackbird of the Glen.”
“Did you ever hear the ‘Foggy Dew’?” said the Fairy.
“No,” said the Dwarf.