They give her
nuts and cheese and bread, and all the things she doesn't like, and
there is no one to tease and no mischief to get into; so if there
is a miserable little Fairy anywhere it is Fairy Fluffikins, and
I'm not sure it doesn't serve her quite right.
The Story of the Tinkle-Tinkle.
Once upon a time there lived a Tinkle-Tinkle. I cannot tell you
what he was like, because no man knows, not even the Tinkle-Tinkle
himself. Sometimes he lived on the ground, sometimes in a tree,
sometimes in the water, sometimes in a cave; and I can't tell you
what he lived on, for no man knows, not even the Tinkle-Tinkle
himself.
One day the Tinkle-Tinkle was going through a wood, when he heard a
piteous weeping. He stopped, for he was a kindly Tinkle-Tinkle,
and found two small dormice sobbing under a tree because they had
been cruelly deserted by their parents. He wiped their eyes
tenderly and took them to his cave home; but I cannot tell you how
he went, for no man knows, not even the Tinkle-Tinkle. However,
when he got there he put the dormice to bed in his grandmother's
boots, for which he had never found any use before, and fed them on
periwinkles and tea, and was very kind to them; and when they grew
older he bought them caps and aprons, and they became the Tinkle-
Tinkle's housemaid and parlourmaid.
Now I must tell you that it was a great grief to the Tinkle-Tinkle
not to know what he was, or how he lived, or where he was going to;
and it often made him depressed, but he always concealed it from
the dormice, appearing a most cheerful and contented creature.
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