“Oh, pshaw,” she said, “I can’t bother with you all day.” And she closed the window.
The butterfly rose higher and sailed off down the street in the direction of the woods.
Merrimeg’s mother went back to her washing.
Now it happened, after a while, that the two gnomes, brother Malkin and brother Nibby, were sitting on the moss beside the roof of their house, with their back against a tree. A butterfly, with pointed wings all white and blue and brown, came fluttering towards them through the woods.
It alighted on a bush directly before them, and rested there for a long time, waving its wings up and down. The gnomes sat staring at it. Oh, if that butterfly could only have said one word!
Suddenly Malkin looked up at the sky and said:
“What’s that blackbird carrying, brother?”
“Why, I believe it’s—it’s——” began Nibby.
A blackbird was flying just above them, and as they spoke something dropped from its beak right down onto the bush beside the butterfly. It was the Apple-Seed Elf.
“Bless my soul, brother,” said Malkin in surprise, but before he could say anything else the Apple-Seed Elf hopped over to the butterfly and rubbed his tiny hands quickly over its beautiful wings, all white and blue and brown.