CHAPTER XIII. THE LITTLE ONES
I had been at work but a few moments, when I heard small voices near me, and presently the Little Ones, as I soon found they called themselves, came creeping out from among the tiny trees that like brushwood filled the spaces between the big ones. In a minute there were scores and scores about me. I made signs that the giants had but just left me, and were not far off; but they laughed, and told me the wind was quite clean.
“ They are too blind to see us,” they said, and laughed like a multitude of sheep-bells.
“ Do you like that rope about your ankles?” asked one.
“ I want them to think I cannot take it off,” I replied.
“ They can scarcely see their own feet!” he rejoined. “Walk with short steps and they will think the rope is all right.”
As he sp
