There was no further trouble till twelve o'clock, when all the
children woke up. Then a great wave of alarm spread over the city. Not
one of the costumes would come off then. The buttons buttoned as fast
as they were unbuttoned; the pins quilted themselves in as fast as
they were pulled out; and the strings, flew round like lightning and
twisted themselves into bow-knots as fast as they were untied.
And that was not the worst of it; every one of the children seemed to
have become, in reality, the character which he or she had assumed.
The Mayor's daughter declared she was going to tend her geese out in
the pasture, and the shepherdesses sprang out of their little beds of
down, throwing aside their silken quilts, and cried that they must go
out and watch their sheep. The princesses jumped up from their straw
pallets, and wanted to go to court; and all the rest of them likewise.
Poor little Red Riding-hood sobbed and sobbed because she couldn't go
and carry her basket to her grandmother, and as she didn't have any
grandmother she couldn't go, of course, and her parents were very much
troubled. It was all so mysterious and dreadful. The news spread very
rapidly over the city, and soon a great crowd gathered around the new
Costumer's shop, for every one thought he must be responsible for all
this mischief.
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