As she spoke, the blackbird woke up and began to sing at the top of his voice. "You see," said Granny, "as soon as one thinks of him...." Tyltyl was simply amazed at what he saw: "But he's blue!" he shouted. "Why, that's the bird, the Blue Bird!... He's blue, blue, blue as a blue glass marble!... Will you give him to me?" The grandparents gladly consented; and, full of triumph, Tyltyl went and fetched the cage which he had left by the tree. He took hold of the precious bird with the greatest of care; and it began to hop about in its new home. "How pleased the Fairy will be!" said the boy, rejoicing at his conquest. "And Light too!" "Come along," said the grandparents. "Come and look at the cow and the bees." As the old couple were beginning to toddle across the garden, the children suddenly asked if their little dead brothers and sisters were there too. At the same moment, seven little children, who, up to then, had been sleeping in the house, came tearing like mad into the garden. Tyltyl and Mytyl ran up to them. They all hustled and hugged one another and danced and whirled about and uttered screams of joy. "Here they are, here they are!" said Granny. "As soon as you speak of them, they are there, the imps!" Tyltyl caught a little one by the hair: "Hullo, Pierrot! So we're going to fight again, as in the old days!... And Robert!... I say, Jean, what's become of your top?... Madeleine and Pierrette and Pauline!... And here's Riquette!..." Mytyl laughed: "Riquette's still crawling on all fours!" Tyltyl noticed a little dog yapping around them: "There's Kiki, whose tail I cut off with Pauline's scissors.... He hasn't changed either...." "No," said Gaffer Tyl, in a voice of great importance, "nothing changes here!" But, suddenly, amid the general rejoicings, the old people stopped spell-bound: they had heard the small voice of the clock indoors strike eight! [Illustration: The grandparents and grandchildren sat down to supper] "How's this?" they asked. "It never strikes nowadays...." "That's because we no longer think of the time," said Granny. "Was any one thinking of the time?" "Yes, I was," said Tyltyl. "So it's eight o'clock?... Then I'm off, for I promised Light to be back before nine...." He was going for the cage, but the others were too happy to let him run away so soon: it would be horrid to say good-bye like that! Granny had a good idea: she knew what a little glutton Tyltyl was. It was just supper-time and, as luck would have it, there was some capital cabbage-soup and a beautiful plum-tart. "Well," said our hero, "as I've got the Blue Bird!... And cabbage-soup is a thing you don't have every day!..."