Everybody has heard of the Little House in the KensingtonGardens, which is the only house in the whole world that thefairies have built for humans. But no one has really seen it,except just three or four, and they have not only seen it butslept in it, and unless you sleep in it you never see it. Thisis because it is not there when you lie down, but it is therewhen you wake up and step outside.

In a kind of way everyone may see it, but what you see is notreally it, but only the light in the windows. You see the lightafter Lock-out Time. David, for instance, saw it quitedistinctly far away among the trees as we were going home fromthe pantomime, and Oliver Bailey saw it the night he stayed solate at the Temple, which is the name of his father's office. Angela Clare, who loves to have a tooth extracted because thenshe is treated to tea in a shop, saw more than one light, she sawhundreds of them all together, and this must have been thefairies building the house, for they build it every night andalways in a different part of the Gardens. She thought one ofthe lights was bigger than the others, though she was not quitesure, for they jumped about so, and it might have been anotherone that was bigger. But if it was the same one, it was PeterPan's light. Heaps of children have seen the light, so that isnothing. But Maimie Mannering was the famous one for whom thehouse was first built.

Maimie was always rather a strange girl, and it was at night thatshe was strange. She was four years of age, and in the daytimeshe was the ordinary kind. She was pleased when her brotherTony, who was a magnificent fellow of six, took notice of her,and she looked up to him in the right way, and tried in vain toimitate him and was flattered rather than annoyed when he shovedher about. Also, when she was batting she would pause though theball was in the air to point out to you that she was wearing newshoes. She was quite the ordinary kind in the daytime.

But as the shades of night fell, Tony, the swaggerer, lost hiscontempt for Maimie and eyed her fearfully, and no wonder, forwith dark there came into her face a look that I can describeonly as a leary look. It was also a serene look that contrastedgrandly with Tony's uneasy glances. Then he would make herpresents of his favourite toys (which he always took away fromher next morning) and she accepted them with a disturbing smile. The reason he was now become so wheedling and she so mysteriouswas (in brief) that they knew they were about to be sent to bed. It was then that Maimie was terrible. Tony entreated her not todo it to-night, and the mother and their coloured nursethreatened her, but Maimie merely smiled her agitating smile. And by-and-by when they were alone with their night-light shewould start up in bed crying "Hsh! what was that?" Tonybeseeches her! "It was nothing--don't, Maimie, don't!" and pullsthe sheet over his head. "It is coming nearer!" she cries; "Oh,look at it, Tony! It is feeling your bed with its horns--it isboring for you, oh, Tony, oh!" and she desists not until herushes downstairs in his combinations, screeching. When theycame up to whip Maimie they usually found her sleepingtranquilly, not shamming, you know, but really sleeping, andlooking like the sweetest little angel, which seems to me to makeit almost worse.

But of course it was daytime when they were in the Gardens, andthen Tony did most of the talking. You could gather from histalk that he was a very brave boy, and no one was so proud of itas Maimie. She would have loved to have a ticket on her sayingthat she was his sister. And at no time did she admire him morethan when he told her, as he often did with splendid firmness,that one day he meant to remain behind in the Gardens after thegates were closed.

"Oh, Tony," she would say, with awful respect, "but the fairieswill be so angry!"

"I daresay," replied Tony, carelessly.

"Perhaps," she said, thrilling, "Peter Pan will give you a sailin his boat!"

"I shall make him," replied Tony; no wonder she was proud of him.

But they should not have talked so loudly, for one day they wereoverheard by a fairy who had been gathering skeleton leaves, fromwhich the little people weave their summer curtains, and afterthat Tony was a marked boy. They loosened the rails before hesat on them, so that down he came on the back of his head; theytripped him up by catching his boot-lace and bribed the ducks tosink his boat. Nearly all the nasty accidents you meet with inthe Gardens occur because the fairies have taken an ill-will toyou, and so it behoves you to be careful what you say about them.

Maimie was one of the kind who like to fix a day for doingthings, but Tony was not that kind, and when she asked him whichday he was to remain behind in the Gardens after Lock-out hemerely replied, "Just some day;" he was quite vague about whichday except when she asked "Will it be to-day?" and then he couldalways say for certain that it would not be to-day. So she sawthat he was waiting for a real good chance.

This brings us to an afternoon when the Gardens were white withsnow, and there was ice on the Round Pond, not thick enough toskate on but at least you could spoil it for to-morrow byflinging stones, and many bright little boys and girls were doingthat.

When Tony and his sister arrived they wanted to go straight tothe pond, but their ayah said they must take a sharp walk first,and as she said this she glanced at the time-board to see whenthe Gardens closed that night. It read half-past five. Poorayah! she is the one who laughs continuously because there are somany white children in the world, but she was not to laugh muchmore that day.

Well, they went up the Baby Walk and back, and when they returnedto the time-board she was surprised to see that it now read fiveo'clock for closing time. But she was unacquainted with thetricky ways of the fairies, and so did not see (as Maimie andTony saw at once) that they had changed the hour because therewas to be a ball to-night. She said there was only time now towalk to the top of the Hump and back, and as they trotted alongwith her she little guessed what was thrilling their littlebreasts. You see the chance had come of seeing a fairy ball. Never, Tony felt, could he hope for a better chance.

He had to feel this, for Maimie so plainly felt it for him. Hereager eyes asked the question, "Is it to-day?" and he gasped andthen nodded. Maimie slipped her hand into Tony's, and hers washot, but his was cold. She did a very kind thing; she took offher scarf and gave it to him! "In case you should feel cold,"she whispered. Her face was aglow, but Tony's was very gloomy.

As they turned on the top of the Hump he whispered to her, "I'mafraid Nurse would see me, so I sha'n't be able to do it."

Maimie admired him more than ever for being afraid of nothing buttheir ayah, when there were so many unknown terrors to fear, andshe said aloud, "Tony, I shall race you to the gate," and in awhisper, "Then you can hide," and off they ran.

Tony could always outdistance her easily, but never had she knownhim speed away so quickly as now, and she was sure he hurriedthat he might have more time to hide. "Brave, brave!" her dotingeyes were crying when she got a dreadful shock; instead ofhiding, her hero had run out at the gate! At this bitter sightMaimie stopped blankly, as if all her lapful of darling treasureswere suddenly spilled, and then for very disdain she could notsob; in a swell of protest against all puling cowards she ran toSt. Govor's Well and hid in Tony's stead.

When the ayah reached the gate and saw Tony far in front shethought her other charge was with him and passed out. Twilightcame on, and scores and hundreds of people passed out, includingthe last one, who always has to run for it, but Maimie saw themnot. She had shut her eyes tight and glued them with passionatetears. When she opened them something very cold ran up her legsand up her arms and dropped into her heart. It was the stillnessof the Gardens. Then she heard clang, then from another partclang, then clang, clang far away. It was the Closing of theGates.

Immediately the last clang had died away Maimie distinctly hearda voice say, "So that's all right." It had a wooden sound andseemed to come from above, and she looked up in time to see anelm tree stretching out its arms and yawning.

She was about to say, "I never knew you could speak!" when ametallic voice that seemed to come from the ladle at the wellremarked to the elm, "I suppose it is a bit coldish up there?"and the elm replied, "Not particularly, but you do get numbstanding so long on one leg," and he flapped his arms vigorouslyjust as the cabmen do before they drive off. Maimie was quitesurprised to see that a number of other tall trees were doing thesame sort of thing, and she stole away to the Baby Walk andcrouched observantly under a Minorca Holly which shrugged itsshoulders but did not seem to mind her.

She was not in the least cold. She was wearing a russet-colouredpelisse and had the hood over her head, so that nothing of hershowed except her dear little face and her curls. The rest ofher real self was hidden far away inside so many warm garmentsthat in shape she seemed rather like a ball. She was about fortyround the waist.

There was a good deal going on in the Baby Walk, when Maimiearrived in time to see a magnolia and a Persian lilac step overthe railing and set off for a smart walk. They moved in a jerkysort of way certainly, but that was because they used crutches.An elderberry hobbled across the walk, and stood chatting withsome young quinces, and they all had crutches. The crutches werethe sticks that are tied to young trees and shrubs. They werequite familiar objects to Maimie, but she had never known whatthey were for until to-night.

She peeped up the walk and saw her first fairy. He was a streetboy fairy who was running up the walk closing the weeping trees.The way he did it was this, he pressed a spring in the trunk andthey shut like umbrellas, deluging the little plants beneath withsnow. "Oh, you naughty, naughty child!" Maimie criedindignantly, for she knew what it was to have a dripping umbrellaabout your ears.

Fortunately the mischievous fellow was out of earshot, but thechrysanthemums heard her, and they all said so pointedly "Hoity-toity, what is this?" that she had to come out and show herself.Then the whole vegetable kingdom was rather puzzled what to do.

"Of course it is no affair of ours," a spindle tree said afterthey had whispered together, "but you know quite well you oughtnot to be here, and perhaps our duty is to report you to thefairies; what do you think yourself?"

"I think you should not," Maimie replied, which so perplexed themthat they said petulantly there was no arguing with her. "Iwouldn't ask it of you," she assured them, "if I thought it waswrong," and of course after this they could not well carry tales.They then said, "Well-a-day," and "Such is life!" for they can befrightfully sarcastic, but she felt sorry for those of them whohad no crutches, and she said good-naturedly, "Before I go to thefairies' ball, I should like to take you for a walk one at atime; you can lean on me, you know."

At this they clapped their hands, and she escorted them up to theBaby Walk and back again, one at a time, putting an arm or afinger round the very frail, setting their leg right when it gottoo ridiculous, and treating the foreign ones quite ascourteously as the English, though she could not understand aword they said.

They behaved well on the whole, though some whimpered that shehad not taken them as far as she took Nancy or Grace or Dorothy,and others jagged her, but it was quite unintentional, and shewas too much of a lady to cry out. So much walking tired her andshe was anxious to be off to the ball, but she no longer feltafraid. The reason she felt no more fear was that it was nownight-time, and in the dark, you remember, Maimie was alwaysrather strange.

They were now loath to let her go, for, "If the fairies see you,"they warned her, "they will mischief you, stab you to death orcompel you to nurse their children or turn you into somethingtedious, like an evergreen oak." As they said this they lookedwith affected pity at an evergreen oak, for in winter they arevery envious of the evergreens.

"Oh, la!" replied the oak bitingly, "how deliciously cosy it isto stand here buttoned to the neck and watch you poor nakedcreatures shivering!"

This made them sulky though they had really brought it onthemselves, and they drew for Maimie a very gloomy picture of theperils that faced her if she insisted on going to the ball.

She learned from a purple filbert that the court was not in itsusual good temper at present, the cause being the tantalisingheart of the Duke of Christmas Daisies. He was an Orientalfairy, very poorly of a dreadful complaint, namely, inability tolove, and though he had tried many ladies in many lands he couldnot fall in love with one of them. Queen Mab, who rules in theGardens, had been confident that her girls would bewitch him, butalas, his heart, the doctor said, remained cold. This ratherirritating doctor, who was his private physician, felt the Duke'sheart immediately after any lady was presented, and then alwaysshook his bald head and murmured, "Cold, quite cold!" NaturallyQueen Mab felt disgraced, and first she tried the effect ofordering the court into tears for nine minutes, and then sheblamed the Cupids and decreed that they should wear fools' capsuntil they thawed the Duke's frozen heart.

"How I should love to see the Cupids in their dear little fools'caps!" Maimie cried, and away she ran to look for them veryrecklessly, for the Cupids hate to be laughed at.

It is always easy to discover where a fairies' ball is beingheld, as ribbons are stretched between it and all the populousparts of the Gardens, on which those invited may walk to thedance without wetting their pumps. This night the ribbons werered and looked very pretty on the snow.

Maimie walked alongside one of them for some distance withoutmeeting anybody, but at last she saw a fairy cavalcadeapproaching. To her surprise they seemed to be returning fromthe ball, and she had just time to hide from them by bending herknees and holding out her arms and pretending to be a gardenchair. There were six horsemen in front and six behind, in themiddle walked a prim lady wearing a long train held up by twopages, and on the train, as if it were a couch, reclined a lovelygirl, for in this way do aristocratic fairies travel about. Shewas dressed in golden rain, but the most enviable part of her washer neck, which was blue in colour and of a velvet texture, andof course showed off her diamond necklace as no white throatcould have glorified it. The high-born fairies obtain thisadmired effect by pricking their skin, which lets the blue bloodcome through and dye them, and you cannot imagine anything sodazzling unless you have seen the ladies' busts in the jewellers'windows.

Maimie also noticed that the whole cavalcade seemed to be in apassion, tilting their noses higher than it can be safe for evenfairies to tilt them, and she concluded that this must be anothercase in which the doctor had said "Cold, quite cold!"

Well, she followed the ribbon to a place where it became a bridgeover a dry puddle into which another fairy had fallen and beenunable to climb out. At first this little damsel was afraid ofMaimie, who most kindly went to her aid, but soon she sat in herhand chatting gaily and explaining that her name was Brownie, andthat though only a poor street singer she was on her way to theball to see if the Duke would have her.

"Of course," she said, "I am rather plain," and this made Maimieuncomfortable, for indeed the simple little creature was almostquite plain for a fairy.

It was difficult to know what to reply.

"I see you think I have no chance," Brownie said falteringly.

"I don't say that," Maimie answered politely, "of course yourface is just a tiny bit homely, but--" Really it was quiteawkward for her.

Fortunately she remembered about her father and the bazaar. Hehad gone to a fashionable bazaar where all the most beautifulladies in London were on view for half-a-crown the second day,but on his return home instead of being dissatisfied withMaimie's mother he had said, "You can't think, my dear, what arelief it is to see a homely face again."

Maimie repeated this story, and it fortified Brownietremendously, indeed she had no longer the slightest doubt thatthe Duke would choose her. So she scudded away up the ribbon,calling out to Maimie not to follow lest the Queen shouldmischief her.

But Maimie's curiosity tugged her forward, and presently at theseven Spanish chestnuts, she saw a wonderful light. She creptforward until she was quite near it, and then she peeped frombehind a tree.

The light, which was as high as your head above the ground, wascomposed of myriads of glow-worms all holding on to each other,and so forming a dazzling canopy over the fairy ring. There werethousands of little people looking on, but they were in shadowand drab in colour compared to the glorious creatures within thatluminous circle who were so bewilderingly bright that Maimie hadto wink hard all the time she looked at them.

It was amazing and even irritating to her that the Duke ofChristmas Daisies should be able to keep out of love for amoment: yet out of love his dusky grace still was: you could seeit by the shamed looks of the Queen and court (though theypretended not to care), by the way darling ladies brought forwardfor his approval burst into tears as they were told to pass on,and by his own most dreary face.

Maimie could also see the pompous doctor feeling the Duke's heartand hear him give utterance to his parrot cry, and she wasparticularly sorry for the Cupids, who stood in their fools' capsin obscure places and, every time they heard that "Cold, quitecold," bowed their disgraced little heads.

She was disappointed not to see Peter Pan, and I may as well tellyou now why he was so late that night. It was because his boathad got wedged on the Serpentine between fields of floating ice,through which he had to break a perilous passage with his trustypaddle.

The fairies had as yet scarcely missed him, for they could notdance, so heavy were their hearts. They forget all the stepswhen they are sad and remember them again when they are merry. David tells me that fairies never say "We feel happy": what theysay is, "We feel dancey."

Well, they were looking very undancey indeed, when suddenlaughter broke out among the onlookers, caused by Brownie, whohad just arrived and was insisting on her right to be presentedto the Duke.

Maimie craned forward eagerly to see how her friend fared, thoughshe had really no hope; no one seemed to have the least hopeexcept Brownie herself, who, however, was absolutely confident.She was led before his grace, and the doctor putting a fingercarelessly on the ducal heart, which for convenience sake wasreached by a little trapdoor in his diamond shirt, had begun tosay mechanically, "Cold, qui--," when he stopped abruptly.

"What's this?" he cried, and first he shook the heart like awatch, and then put his ear to it.

"Bless my soul!" cried the doctor, and by this time of course theexcitement among the spectators was tremendous, fairies faintingright and left.

Everybody stared breathlessly at the Duke, who was very muchstartled and looked as if he would like to run away. "Goodgracious me!" the doctor was heard muttering, and now the heartwas evidently on fire, for he had to jerk his fingers away fromit and put them in his mouth.

The suspense was awful!

Then in a loud voice, and bowing low, "My Lord Duke," said thephysician elatedly, "I have the honour to inform your excellencythat your grace is in love."

You can't conceive the effect of it. Brownie held out her armsto the Duke and he flung himself into them, the Queen leapt intothe arms of the Lord Chamberlain, and the ladies of the courtleapt into the arms of her gentlemen, for it is etiquette tofollow her example in everything. Thus in a single moment aboutfifty marriages took place, for if you leap into each other'sarms it is a fairy wedding. Of course a clergyman has to bepresent.

How the crowd cheered and leapt! Trumpets brayed, the moon cameout, and immediately a thousand couples seized hold of its raysas if they were ribbons in a May dance and waltzed in wildabandon round the fairy ring. Most gladsome sight of all, theCupids plucked the hated fools' caps from their heads and castthem high in the air. And then Maimie went and spoiledeverything. She couldn't help it. She was crazy with delightover her little friend's good fortune, so she took several stepsforward and cried in an ecstasy, "Oh, Brownie, how splendid!"

Everybody stood still, the music ceased, the lights went out, andall in the time you may take to say "Oh dear!" An awful sense ofher peril came upon Maimie, too late she remembered that she wasa lost child in a place where no human must be between thelocking and the opening of the gates, she heard the murmur of anangry multitude, she saw a thousand swords flashing for herblood, and she uttered a cry of terror and fled.

How she ran! and all the time her eyes were starting out of herhead. Many times she lay down, and then quickly jumped up andran on again. Her little mind was so entangled in terrors thatshe no longer knew she was in the Gardens. The one thing she wassure of was that she must never cease to run, and she thought shewas still running long after she had dropped in the Figs and goneto sleep. She thought the snowflakes falling on her face wereher mother kissing her good-night. She thought her coverlet ofsnow was a warm blanket, and tried to pull it over her head. Andwhen she heard talking through her dreams she thought it wasmother bringing father to the nursery door to look at her as sheslept. But it was the fairies.

I am very glad to be able to say that they no longer desired tomischief her. When she rushed away they had rent the air withsuch cries as "Slay her!" "Turn her into something extremelyunpleasant!" and so on, but the pursuit was delayed while theydiscussed who should march in front, and this gave DuchessBrownie time to cast herself before the Queen and demand a boon.

Every bride has a right to a boon, and what she asked for wasMaimie's life. "Anything except that," replied Queen Mabsternly, and all the fairies chanted "Anything except that." Butwhen they learned how Maimie had befriended Brownie and soenabled her to attend the ball to their great glory and renown,they gave three huzzas for the little human, and set off, like anarmy, to thank her, the court advancing in front and the canopykeeping step with it. They traced Maimie easily by herfootprints in the snow.

But though they found her deep in snow in the Figs, it seemedimpossible to thank Maimie, for they could not waken her. Theywent through the form of thanking her, that is to say, the newKing stood on her body and read her a long address of welcome,but she heard not a word of it. They also cleared the snow offher, but soon she was covered again, and they saw she was indanger of perishing of cold.

"Turn her into something that does not mind the cold," seemed agood suggestion of the doctor's, but the only thing they couldthink of that does not mind cold was a snowflake. "And it mightmelt," the Queen pointed out, so that idea had to be given up.

A magnificent attempt was made to carry her to a sheltered spot,but though there were so many of them she was too heavy. By thistime all the ladies were crying in their handkerchiefs, butpresently the Cupids had a lovely idea. "Build a house roundher," they cried, and at once everybody perceived that this wasthe thing to do; in a moment a hundred fairy sawyers were amongthe branches, architects were running round Maimie, measuringher; a bricklayer's yard sprang up at her feet, seventy-fivemasons rushed up with the foundation stone and the Queen laid it,overseers were appointed to keep the boys off, scaffoldings wererun up, the whole place rang with hammers and chisels and turninglathes, and by this time the roof was on and the glaziers wereputting in the windows.

The house was exactly the size of Maimie and perfectly lovely.One of her arms was extended and this had bothered them for asecond, but they built a verandah round it, leading to the frontdoor. The windows were the size of a coloured picture-book andthe door rather smaller, but it would be easy for her to get outby taking off the roof. The fairies, as is their custom, clappedtheir hands with delight over their cleverness, and they were allso madly in love with the little house that they could not bearto think they had finished it. So they gave it ever so manylittle extra touches, and even then they added more extratouches.

For instance, two of them ran up a ladder and put on a chimney.

"Now we fear it is quite finished," they sighed. But no, foranother two ran up the ladder, and tied some smoke to thechimney.

"That certainly finishes it," they cried reluctantly.

"Not at all," cried a glow-worm, "if she were to wake withoutseeing a night-light she might be frightened, so I shall be hernight-light."

"Wait one moment," said a china merchant, "and I shall make you asaucer."

Now alas, it was absolutely finished.

Oh, dear no!

"Gracious me," cried a brass manufacturer, "there's no handle onthe door," and he put one on.

An ironmonger added a scraper and an old lady ran up with a door-mat. Carpenters arrived with a water-butt, and the paintersinsisted on painting it.

Finished at last!

"Finished! how can it be finished," the plumber demandedscornfully, "before hot and cold are put in?" and he put in hotand cold. Then an army of gardeners arrived with fairy carts andspades and seeds and bulbs and forcing-houses, and soon they hada flower garden to the right of the verandah and a vegetablegarden to the left, and roses and clematis on the walls of thehouse, and in less time than five minutes all these dear thingswere in full bloom.

Oh, how beautiful the little house was now! But it was at lastfinished true as true, and they had to leave it and return to thedance. They all kissed their hands to it as they went away, andthe last to go was Brownie. She stayed a moment behind theothers to drop a pleasant dream down the chimney.

All through the night the exquisite little house stood there inthe Figs taking care of Maimie, and she never knew. She sleptuntil the dream was quite finished and woke feeling deliciouslycosy just as morning was breaking from its egg, and then shealmost fell asleep again, and then she called out, "Tony," forshe thought she was at home in the nursery. As Tony made noanswer, she sat up, whereupon her head hit the roof, and itopened like the lid of a box, and to her bewilderment she saw allaround her the Kensington Gardens lying deep in snow. As she wasnot in the nursery she wondered whether this was really herself,so she pinched her cheeks, and then she knew it was herself, andthis reminded her that she was in the middle of a greatadventure. She remembered now everything that had happened toher from the closing of the gates up to her running away from thefairies, but however, she asked herself, had she got into thisfunny place? She stepped out by the roof, right over the garden,and then she saw the dear house in which she had passed thenight. It so entranced her that she could think of nothing else.

"Oh, you darling, oh, you sweet, oh, you love!" she cried.

Perhaps a human voice frightened the little house, or maybe itnow knew that its work was done, for no sooner had Maimie spokenthan it began to grow smaller; it shrank so slowly that she couldscarce believe it was shrinking, yet she soon knew that it couldnot contain her now. It always remained as complete as ever, butit became smaller and smaller, and the garden dwindled at thesame time, and the snow crept closer, lapping house and gardenup. Now the house was the size of a little dog's kennel, and nowof a Noah's Ark, but still you could see the smoke and thedoor-handle and the roses on the wall, every one complete. Theglow-worm light was waning too, but it was still there. "Darling, loveliest, don't go!" Maimie cried, falling on herknees, for the little house was now the size of a reel of thread,but still quite complete. But as she stretched out her armsimploringly the snow crept up on all sides until it met itself,and where the little house had been was now one unbroken expanseof snow.

Maimie stamped her foot naughtily, and was putting her fingers toher eyes, when she heard a kind voice say, "Don't cry, prettyhuman, don't cry," and then she turned round and saw a beautifullittle naked boy regarding her wistfully. She knew at once thathe must be Peter Pan.