“Isn’t guessing allowed?” asked the dwarf. Then he shouted, “Forward! march!” and they all went on to school. When they came to school the dwarf said, “I hardly dare to go inside, Unless I find a place to hide!” Then the Ink Bottle Babies suggested various places for the little dwarf to hide in, but none of the places pleased him, so he said, “If you stay till afternoon, I will come back very soon!” Then in a twinkling of an eye he was gone. The teacher was so surprised to see all the Ink-Bottle Babies on such a rainy day that she let them sit wherever they pleased. They went to the blackboard and did neat little sums, and they all got their answers right. At noon the teacher went home for dinner, and the Babies took out their twenty-five little dinner pails, and began to eat their lunch. The rain came down harder and harder, and the Babies said, “We wonder if the little dwarf got drowned?” Soon there was heard a rap-a-tap at the window, and a voice called, “The rain is rather wet to-day; Will you open your window a little way?” Then the Ink-Bottle Babies ran and opened the window and let the little dwarf in. Such a sputtering and fussing you never heard! He shook the rain from his coat and said, “With no umbrella, how do you suppose, I could keep dry in my little clothes?” Then he danced, and he hopped, and he skipped about until he was quite dry. He tasted something out of every one of the twenty-five dinner pails. Then he climbed up on the window sill and said, “What shall we play, ‘I-Spy’?” The Ink-Bottle Babies said, “There really is no place to hide. Please tell us a story instead!” “Tell about the magic pitcher, or the magic spoon,” cried Molly and Polly! Then the little dwarf said, “If you really, truly do not care, I prefer The Magic Rocking-Chair!” “Tell us about it! Tell us about it!” cried the Babies. The little dwarf waited until the Babies were still; then he began the tale of The Magic Rocking-Chair! Here is the story he told: Once upon a time there was a little boy who lived with his grandparents in the woods. The grandparents were so old and feeble that the little boy had all the wood to cut and the water to bring in. He was kept busy working from morning till night. One evening, as his grandparents fell asleep by the fire, the little boy said, “I wish I had some one to play with me. I do wish I could have some fun once in a while!” A little dwarf stuck his head in at the door and said, softly, “Little boy, if you do not care, I’ll give you a magic rocking-chair!” There stood the little dwarf in the doorway. He carried a beautiful red rocking-chair. The chair was so heavy and large for the dwarf it was all he could possibly carry. [Illustration: “_Kept rocking until they arrived in China_”] He set it down in the doorway and said in a whisper, “Wherever you think you’d like to go, Just sit in the chair and rock to and fro.”