"This is a very strange and wonderful country," said Zuzu, "and I am sure I should never have expected to be here, above all places. I sometimes have to rub my eyes to be sure I am awake. Now, the very idea that we should be so close to actual Fairies, to have them all about, or at least within a short walk--that is very strange and hard for me to believe." "But we don't see them anywhere," said Lulu ruefully. "Now, Fairies may be very close to one, indeed be almost any place about, and still one may not see them. We seem to be very little better off than when we were at home over there;" and she waved her hand toward the distant blue sea, from the other side of which they had come to this strange Island of Gee-Whiz. Zuzu sat thoughtful for a moment. "Yet," said he, "here we are, with thrones almost as good as that of the King, and with Royal Wishing Wands, which will bring us anything we want if we only ask for it; and you know we are allowed to telephone to the Fairies." "That is true," cried Lulu, "I had forgotten that. But we must have a web and a Cricket. A White Cricket may be very hard to find." [Illustration: Zuzu put the cricket to his ear _Page 81_] "Perhaps if we got a plain black one it would do just as well," said Zuzu. "Look, there goes one now!" And indeed, as they glanced down they saw a large Black Cricket hopping along through the grass. "I will get it," cried Zuzu, and sprang after it with his hat in his hand, soon returning with the Cricket held in his fingers. "Now we must have some spider webs," said Lulu, forgetting that they were not complying with the conditions the Private Secretary had told them. They forgot to look for a White Cricket, but eagerly ran about in the grass searching for a spider web. At length, under a wide burdock leaf, they found one. "Here is the Fairy Telephone," cried Lulu. "Quick! Quick! Listen! Let us hear what the Cricket and the spider say for us!" So Zuzu put the Cricket to his ear. "Creek! Creek!" said the Cricket. Then, as he listened very closely, Zuzu heard something very thin and very far away begin to sing to him. "Aha!" cried Zuzu, "this is not such a bad Cricket after all. I shall call the Fairy, and we'll see what it is, good or bad." So he called out in a loud voice over the Telephone, "Come, Fairy, come!" To their great surprise, as he spoke there stood at their feet a little Black Fairy, with pointed hat, who smiled and bowed. "Pray, who are you?" asked Zuzu. "I am Gobo, a Fairy," he explained. "What was it that you wished, good sir?" "We wish to see a Fairy," replied Lulu eagerly. "Are you a Fairy?" "I am one sort of Fairy," replied the little one. "Unhappily, there are other kinds, as I must admit." "But we wish to see the real ones, with white wings. We want to go to the Valley of the Fairies, where we may see the Queen herself and learn how the good Fairies live," said Lulu. "I can be of no use in that case," said the little one, turning away gruffly.