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I'm " "Well, well! Here we are back again," said the Counterpane Fairy, "and stiff enough I feel after all that journeying." "Oh! wasn't it funny?" said Teddy, and his knees shook with laughter. "They really thought I was a gamblesome elf." "Take care!" cried the fairy. "There you are shaking your knees again.
Then he climbed back once more, and away they flew down the hillside and out of sight, the lady fairy weeping all the time as though her heart would break. "I wonder what she was crying about," said the gamblesome elf to himself, as he stared after them. "I can tell you that easily enough," said a little voice so close to his elbow that it made him jump.
Look at your red cap and the way your toes turn down. I say you are a gamblesome elf." Teddy looked at his toes and sure enough they did turn down. "I wonder if I am a gamblesome elf," he thought. But the old fairy paid no more attention to him. He seemed to be in a great hurry and very cross.
"Is everything packed up?" he asked in a querulous voice. Then his eyes fell on Teddy the elf. He scowled until his little pin-pricks of eyes almost disappeared. "Ugh! there's one of those nasty gamblesome elves," he said. "Now mischief's sure to follow." "I'm not a gamblesome elf!" cried Teddy. "Yes you are!" said the withered old fairy. "You needn't tell me!
Up and down, up and down the tree he climbed again and again, carrying thorns and quietly setting them in the nest, and as he went up and down he kept whispering to himself: "I'm a gamblesome elf; oh, yes, indeed I am a gamblesome elf." After he thought he had put enough in the nest, he went into old Granddaddy Thistletop's kitchen, and, crouching down by the fireplace, he listened.
I wouldn't keep them in the same tree with that gamblesome elf no, not a night longer for all the mice you could offer me." "But how can we get them away?" asked old Father Owl. "They can't fly." "No, we can't fly!" cried all the little owls. "Oh, what shall we do? Ow! Ow!" "Can't fly! They've got to fly," said Mother Owl, "and you and I must help them. Back to the old tree we go this very night."
Then he remembered that he was a gamblesome elf, so he made a face at her, and began to hop up and down and twirl about on his toes, singing: "I won't go away! I won't go away! I'll stay all night, and I'll stay all day. Oh, my cap and toes! I'm a gamblesome elf. Old owl, you had better look out for yourself."
"Our preserver!" he cried. "And to think I should have called you a gamblesome elf! But never mind; I will make it up to you." Suddenly he turned and caught the blushing Rosine by the hand. "Here!" he cried; "she is yours, and you shall live with us, and learn to turn your toes up, and we will all be happy together." "But but " cried Teddy, starting back, "don't you know? I'm not an elf at all.
The old owl looked in for a moment, and then without a word she flew back to her nest as fast as she could. Teddy ran over to the chimney and listened. He heard the old owl brush into the hollow above, and then he heard her saying in a frightened voice: "Husband, husband, what do you think! A gamblesome elf has come to live in old Granddaddy Thistletop's house."
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