The Happy Garden 



which serves for table. Deck chairs painted green 

 mark the tea-house as a human habitation, and, 

 for cosy untidiness, there are cushions, often a bag 

 of semolina for the gold fish, and the butterfly net 

 with which the surface of the pond is skimmed. 



Here everybody sleeps. There was a spell cast 

 on it in the building, and whosoever sits for twenty 

 minutes in the house, nods, nods, and passes into 

 the land of dreams. Sweet dreams hover there, 

 and it is their allurements which entice to sleep. 

 One who knows has said that we are such stuff 

 as dreams are made of, and true economy, wasting 

 nothing, gives liberty to sweet dreams. Every- 

 thing done right begets a pleasant dream, and every- 

 thing done wrong produces shocking nightmares. 

 There may be one or two horrid little nightmares 

 skulking about the tea-house, but they are so tiny 

 and so outnumbered by the lovely dreams, that 

 they can never do more than sit on the top of the 

 roof and drum with their heels. . . . They and 

 all evil spirits are scared away by the blue-glass 

 ball in front of the house, which is neither more 

 nor less than a Witch's Eye. 



(" Fudge ! " says Elisabeth.) 



It was bought in the market-place at Cabourg 

 in Normandy, and is more potent than philtres, and 

 charms, and pentagrams. All evil spirits, and 



184 



