_I_ (_affecting to simulate the natural gratification of a poor old man suddenly smothered in vegetables, fruit and liquid preserve_). How perfectly delicious! _She._ And you want to go to sleep again. [_I go._ _She_ (_pulling my ear again_). And you sawed a dragon coming up the drive, and the sofa was the dragon. _I._ Alack, alack! I see a dragon coming up the drive. What shall I do? I must telephone to the police. _She_ (_quickly_). Did the police have a tuncheon? _I._ Yes, he did. _She._ Shall I be the police? _I_ (_cautiously, because a "tuncheon" necessitates making a long paper roll out of "The Times"_). I am afraid the telephone had broken down, so the police didn't hear. How I wish the Fairy Bluebell was about! _She._ And so the Fairy Bluebell came and cut off the dragon's head and gave it to you. [_Fetches a fourth large cushion and adds it to the pile._ _I._ But why should I have the dragon's head? _She_ (_enigmatically_). You had to have it. [_The poor old man resigns himself to his increasingly glutinous fate._ _She_ (_fetching a waste-paper basket and returning to the sofa_). Limpetty, limpetty, limpetty. _I_ (_faint but inquisitive_). Whatever are you doing now, Priscilla? _She._ Poisoning the dragon's body. _I._ Poisoning it? _She._ Yes, wiv a can. _I._ How? _She._ Down its neck. _I_ (_feeling that the immediate peril from the dragon's assault is now practically over and wishing to return the fairy's kindness_). Shall we pretend that the sofa is where the Fairy Bluebell lived, and I built her a little home with flowers, and these cushions were the flowers, and (_rather basely_) she went to sleep in it? _She_ (_with sparkling eyes_). Yes, yes. [_I remove the potatoes, the plums, the honey and the head of the dragon and manufacture a grotto in which the Fairy Bluebell reclines with closed eyes. It appears to be a suitable moment for returning to my book._ _She._ And suddenly the Fairy Bluebell woke up, and what do you think she wanted? _I_ (_disillusioned_). I can't think. _She._ She wanted to be readen to. _I_ (_resignedly_). And what did I do? _She._ You said, "I'll read about Tom and the otter." _I_ (_hopefully_). I don't know where it is. _She._ I think it's in the dining-room, and the Fairy Bluebell couldn't get it herself because she was only a _little_ girl really. As I say, there are a lot of people, and many of them, doubtless, readers of this paper, who understand all about fairies. I want to ask them, as one poor old hard-worked man to another, whether this is the proper way for a fairy to behave. There seems to be a lack of delicacy--and shall I say shyness?--about it. EVOE. * * * * * [Illustration: _Mrs. McNicol._ "FOUND A POUN' NOTE IN THE STREET, DONAL'? THAT'S GUID!" _Her Husband (sadly.)_ "AY, BUT MCTAVISH SAW ME PICK IT UP, AN' I OWE HIM TWENTY-TWO AN' SAXPENCE."] * * * * *