Maude needed no pressing to taste them.
"Oh you good Puck," she said gratefully, "how kind you are to me! Did Margaret give you all that?"
"Margaret, indeed!" answered the goblin, growling; "she has no time to think of you. She is too busy staring at what's going on, and tasting stolen bits."
"But who gave you all this—this delicious cake and this splendid pie? This must surely be the dish that Margaret says cook is so proud of!"
"Yes, that it is!" said the little fellow, nodding; "and the guests made such faces when it suddenly vanished from before their eyes that I nearly died with laughing at them—ha, ha, ha!"
"Vanished?" asked the child in astonishment.
"Yes, vanished!" laughed Puck; "do you think they would have given it of their own accord; I put on my cap, so that they did not see me, and then I packed up everything that I thought you would like."
Maude dropped the bit that she was just putting to her mouth, and gazed incredulously at her little friend.
"What do you mean?" she asked anxiously.