"It's a casket of gold
From the caverns old,
Where the dwarfs are working for ever.
All that it doth hold,
If you should be told,
Oh! would you believe it? no, never!"
And one of the mannikins tumbled over it, and turned somersaults, and rolled it up to Paulina.
And then the Wind whispered very softly to her—
"Little maid, I told you true,
Mannikins in red and blue
Would bring something good for you
If the painting well were done
Ere the setting of the sun."
"Yes, yes," said Paulina; "it's all true; but the painting's gone, and it all seems like a dream; and I've got Peter back, and his ankle's well. But how did he get his blue suit?"
But that neither the Red Emperor nor the Wind told her; neither did Peter, for when she asked him the question he only said—
"I don't know!"
Julia Goddard.