[Illustration: A little brown old man's face peeped from behind the cherry-tree.--Page 20] They all looked blank; for the tree was so high to where the branches sprang, and besides, their mother had said they were not to climb. And the ladder lay flat upon the grass--far too heavy for little hands to move. "What! you big boys don't expect a poor little fellow like me to lift the ladder all by myself? Try! I'll help you." Whether he helped or not, no sooner had they taken hold of the ladder than it rose up, almost of its own accord, and fixed itself quite safely against the tree. "But we must not climb--mother told us not," said the boys, ruefully. "Mother said we were to stand at the bottom and pick up the cherries." "Very well. Obey your mother. I'll just run up the tree myself." Before the words were out of his mouth Brownie darted up the ladder like a monkey, and disappeared among the fruit-laden branches. The children looked dismayed for a minute, till they saw a merry brown face peeping out from the green leaves at the very top of the tree. "Biggest fruit always grows highest," cried the Brownie. "Stand in a row, all you children. Little boys, hold out your caps: little girls, make a bag of your pinafores. Open your mouths and shut your eyes, and see what the queen will send you." They laughed and did as they were told; whereupon they were drowned in a shower of cherries--cherries falling like hailstones, hitting them on their heads, their cheeks, their noses--filling their caps and pinafores, and then rolling and tumbling on to the grass, till it was strewn thick as leaves in autumn with the rosy fruit. What a glorious scramble they had--these three little boys and three little girls! How they laughed and jumped and knocked their heads together in picking up the cherries, yet never quarreled--for there were such heaps, it would have been ridiculous to squabble over them; and besides, whenever they began to quarrel, Brownie always ran away. Now he was the merriest of the lot; ran up and down the tree like a cat, helped to pick up the cherries, and was first-rate at filling the large market-basket. "We were to eat as many as we liked, only we must first fill the basket," conscientiously said the eldest girl; upon which they all set to at once, and filled it to the brim. "Now we'll have a dinner-party," cried the Brownie; and squatted down like a Turk, crossed his queer little legs, and sticking his elbows upon his knees, in a way that nobody but a Brownie could manage. "Sit in a ring! sit in a ring! and we'll see who can eat fastest."