The buttons buttoned again as fast as they were unbuttoned;
even if they pulled out a pin, in it would slip again in a twinkling;
and when a string was untied it tied itself up again into a bow-knot.
The parents were dreadfully frightened. But the children were so tired
out they finally let them go to bed in their fancy costumes, and
thought perhaps they would come off better in the morning. So Red
Riding-hood went to bed in her little red cloak, holding fast to her
basket full of dainties for her grandmother, and Bo Peep slept with
her crook in her hand.
The children all went to bed readily enough, they were so very
tired, even though they had to go in this strange array. All but the
fairies--they danced and pirouetted and would not be still.
[Illustration: THEIR PARENTS STARED IN GREAT DISTRESS]
"We want to swing on the blades of grass," they kept saying, "and play
hide-and-seek in the lily-cups, and take a nap between the leaves of
the roses."
The poor charwomen and coal-heavers, whose children the fairies were
for the most part, stared at them in great distress. They did not know
what to do with these radiant, frisky little creatures into which
their Johnnys and their Pollys and Betseys were so suddenly
transformed. But the fairies went to bed quietly enough when daylight
came, and were soon fast asleep.
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