“what did you think of wearing?” asked the giant.
“let me see,” said peggy. “yes—i think i wish to go as a fairy, in pink. what would you like to be?”
“the wishes do work well now!” said the giant in a gratified voice, for peggy stood before him glittering in a rosy spangled frock and gleaming silver wings, with a star on her forehead and a wand in her hand all complete. “well, if you’ll really be so kind as to use up another wish on me, i think i’d rather like to go as little boy blue.”
“certainly!” said peggy, and the next instant the giant, a good deal smaller than usual, and dressed all in blue, with a golden horn in his hand, stood on the plain. unfortunately, however, his seven-leagued boots still remained their usual size, and his beard was as long and curly as ever, which gave him rather a strange appearance.
“not quite so successful,” he remarked, glancing down at himself. “however, i shall pass in a crowd, i daresay. and now we must start. the pixies will go under the hills, which takes a quarter of the time, but i daren’t take you[50] that way for fear of spoiling our clothes. come along—fly on to my shoulder. that’s right! shut your eyes and it won’t seem so far.” and off he walked at a great pace over the hills.
peggy didn’t mean to do another picture of the fifth adventure, but mother particularly wanted one of the pixies, so she had to do this, as the ball-room one was too difficult to do. the pixies are just shouting out, “this is mazing, this is!” and peggy is trying to catch two of them. you can see how tired and giddy the giant must have got with wandering about amongst so many snowmen. he is just wiping his face with his red handkerchief. peggy made herself so very ugly by mistake, and didn’t know how to change it.
“do try to remember as we go what ‘mazing’ means,” said peggy. “i wish i knew. it’s such a funny word!”
“i can’t talk or think of anything at present,” said the giant. “i’ve got to try and find my way, and it’s no easy matter, i can assure you.” and a long silence ensued.
“aren’t we there yet?” asked peggy at last, after they had been travelling for over a quarter of an hour. she opened her eyes as she spoke, and then nearly fell off the giant’s shoulder with astonishment.
for the brown hills had quite disappeared, and in their place a dazzling white country spread around. and a country filled with—could it be? peggy rubbed her eyes, and stared again. yes. filled with snowmen! snowmen towering up in all directions, one behind the other, hundreds and hundreds of them, and all exactly like the one mother and peggy had made in the garden last winter, with coals for eyes, and pipes in their mouths!
“yes, i thought you’d be surprised!” said the giant, stopping wearily. “i was. we’ve missed our way somehow, i believe, and it would really have been better if we had gone under the hills after all. this white country gets on my nerves. i must have a rest!”
he propped himself up against one of the snowmen as he spoke, and mopped his face with his red pocket-handkerchief. “do fly up fairly high and see if there’s any way out of this,” he implored in an exhausted voice. “i’ve been walking in and out between the wretched things for ages. there seems no end to them!”
peggy fluttered up and looked north, south, east and[51] west, but alas, there was nothing but hosts and hosts of snowmen in all directions.
“i believe it’s a trick of those nasty pixies!” said the giant angrily when she returned. “there—look! wasn’t that one of them?” and he pointed behind her.
peggy wheeled round, just in time to see a mischievous pixie face peeping from behind a snowman.
“catch him!” cried the giant, making a grab and missing. “oh, now he’s over there!” as another face peeped at them from quite another direction.
“this is mazing, this is,” said a tiny, chuckling voice, and a third pixie appeared round another snowman, and disappeared again just as peggy thought she had really got him.
“oh dear!” said the giant, stopping in dismay. “don’t you remember you said you wished you knew what mazing was? i never took in that it was a wish till this moment!”
“why, so i did!” said peggy. “gracious me, what a silly game! and that makes four wishes gone, too. there, now i’ve got him!” and she made a wild dash to the right, but only succeeded in catching a pointed cap, and falling full length in the wet snow.
“this is mazing, this is!” cried out about twenty giggling voices at once, and heads poked out from behind the snowmen in all directions.
“oh, i can’t stand this any longer,” said peggy. “i wish we were at that party! any of the other amusements would be better than this one!”
at once the snowmen all toppled over and melted in a trice, and peggy and the giant found themselves standing in a great purple cave full of rosy light.
all around them danced a multitude of gnomes,[52] brownies, sprites, and every other kind of unusual creature; and a large company of pixies in fancy dress, who had been playing leap-frog in a corner, came pushing their way through the crowd.
“oh, you are late!” they cried. “you’ve been mazing, haven’t you?” and they all burst into a great roar of laughter.
“you’re not being a bit funny,” said the giant, turning his back on them, and “here come the naiads!” he whispered to peggy. “they only attend the best parties,” and he pointed towards some beautiful tall ladies in green and blue with water lilies in their hair, who were walking up the cave towards them, followed by a crowd of handsome dryads in brown and yellow.
“come and play at flitting,” said one of them, taking peggy’s and the giant’s hands. “those bad-mannered creatures will improve if you take no notice of them. we’ll show you how to play,” and up to the ceiling they all went, and everyone else after them.
peggy never forgot that wonderful night. when she was tired with darting round the cavern walls, or hunting for diamonds in the dark, she skated with a company of very polite trolls in a beautiful inner cavern, whose walls were a gleaming mass of rubies. and then the pixies, who by this time had remembered their manners, crowned her queen of the revels with great pomp, and led her off to partake of light refreshments.
these were set out in a great black and yellow cavern which was entirely lighted by glow-worms, cleverly concealed in full-blown yellow roses hung from the roof. peggy was put at the head of the table with the giant by her side, and big sugar sweets of every shape and kind were piled upon their plates.
[53]but no sooner had they finished half their helpings than a sudden shout of “back to work!” “back to work!” sounded from all sides.
the naiads and dryads immediately disappeared in a pale green mist, the sprites changed into blue smoke, and the next instant peggy found herself, with hundreds of silent, hardworking pixies, digging with pickaxes in the sides of a cold dark rock, by the light of a solitary glow-worm!
the giant, with his blue sleeves rolled up, was working diligently by her side.
“oh, what are we doing? where’s the party gone?” cried peggy in great distress.
“over,” said the giant without stopping; and at every blow of his axe great pieces of gold fell out of the rock. “now we’ve got to work!”
“oh, but this is dull,” said peggy. “and i know nannie wouldn’t like me to get hot with my bad cold,” she went on primly, quite forgetting that she had not thought of that at all, during the games just now. then seeing the giant was busily knocking some emeralds out of the rock without taking any notice of what she said, “oh, i hate the horrid place; i wish i was back in bed!” she went on crossly, just to see whether he’d answer that or not, and throwing her pickaxe down with a crash....
“but you are, miss peggy,” said nurse’s voice soothingly, and peggy found herself once more in the nursery, with the blankets and sheets all tumbling off in a most uncomfortable way. “there, that’s better! now you must try and go to sleep again. the hot-water bottle’s just tumbled out. i expect that’s what woke you.”
“why, nannie, i didn’t really mean to come back so[54] soon!” said peggy. “i never thanked them for my nice time, or anything!”
“you’ve been dreaming you were at the party next door,” said nurse. “that’s because you heard the music, i expect. now you mustn’t talk any longer. to-morrow night mother will be home!”
“why, so she will! good-night, giant dear,” said peggy, and turning over fell sound asleep at once.
“she must be feverish, i’m afraid, yet she looks quite well,” said nurse rather uneasily, stealing softly from the room.
and all night long on peggy’s thumb the green stone winked and twinkled at the fire.
