“Oh!” said Merrimeg, and she carefully ate all around the outside of the apple, and out came into her hand the tiniest little man in the world, no bigger than an apple core, and dressed in a coat made of apple seeds all fastened together. “I heard your mother calling you!” said this little elf. “First you won’t answer your mother, and then you nearly bite my head off. What do you mean by it?” [Illustration: MERRIMEG WAS SITTING IN AN APPLE TREE] “I don’t like to dry dishes,” said Merrimeg. “Oh, she doesn’t like to dry dishes! Oh, no indeed! She mustn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do! Not she! I’ll tell you what; I suppose you’d like to do nothing all day but eat and be outdoors, and never have to bother about washing and dressing and sweeping and dusting and running errands,--I suppose that’s what you’d like?” “Well,” said Merrimeg, “I _would_ like it pretty well. I hate to sweep and----” “All right!” cried the Apple-Seed Elf, and he sprang from her hand onto a branch near her shoulder. “I’ll fix it for you! I’ll see to it! You’ll never have to dress or do any lessons any more,--now then! Caterpillar! Go away, child, and come up, caterpillar! Come up, caterpillar! Come, come, come!” As he finished saying this, Merrimeg disappeared. There was no little girl sitting on the branch any longer, but in her place was a fat yellow caterpillar, wriggling along the bark. She was turned into a caterpillar, and she would never have to dress herself or learn any lessons any more. The Apple-Seed Elf hopped down behind the caterpillar and pushed it with his foot. “Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed. “No more dishes to dry for you! Ha, ha!” At that moment a blackbird swooped down over the caterpillar and made a dart at it with his beak and nearly got it. But he missed it, just, and if he hadn’t missed it that would surely have been the end of Merrimeg forever. She wasn’t out of danger, however. The blackbird meant to have that caterpillar, and he came back directly, and this time he swooped down straight over it and opened his beak and---- But at that instant he was knocked sideways by something which shot out at him from among the branches. It was a tiny lady with gauzy wings, a sparkling little lady, not quite so big as the blackbird, and she darted at the bird with a flash like the flash of diamonds, and knocked him sideways just as he was about to snap up the caterpillar. “Ha, ha, ha!” laughed the Apple-Seed Elf, still standing on the branch behind the caterpillar. He seemed to be having a thoroughly good time.