“I don’t need to run this in the casing for you ’cause the metal tip will do the work,” Sir Bodkin said. Margaret put the shoe-lace tip in the slit and pushed it through the casing until it came out again at the slit, with the ends even. [Illustration] “Tie the ends tightly together and your marble-bag is made,” the little fellow said to his mistress, as he bowed very low. “Thank you, thank you,” said Margaret. “Won’t Jim be tickled to get this to hold his snappers, croakies, agates, and glassies.” CHAPTER IX MARGARET’S NEW MIDDY BLOUSE “Yes, he was pleased,” said Margaret to Sir Bodkin and the One-Eyed Fairies who asked her how Jim liked his marble-bag. “Well, I say it’s very pleasant when people like what you make for them,” said the King wisely. “To-day I want to do something for Mother. Of course it’s on something for me but she had such a lot of baking to do to-day she couldn’t finish the new middy blouse that I need to wear to-morrow. We wear them in ‘gym,’ you know, and out in the country in the summer,” said Margaret. “In Jim?” asked Sir Bodkin somewhat mystified. “Gymnasium,” explained Margaret, suddenly remembering that her little friends, though sharp, might not be so keen on knowing about things belonging to the great outside world. [Illustration: She went through some simple exercises] “What’s that?” the Fairies all asked breathlessly. “Oh,” laughed Margaret, “it’s a big room with bars and ladders and horses and rings in it. All kinds of things to do stunts on.” She could see her little friends were still not understanding very well what she was talking about. “I’ll show you some of the things we do and you will see why I wear easy clothes like bloomers and middy blouses,” she said and went through some simple exercises of bending, twisting, and stepping. “Oh! how funny!” cried the Fairies. “Hush!” commanded the King frowning at them. “Very interesting, My Lady,” he said turning politely to Margaret, “and what is there about the blouse to be finished?” “It’s all done but the eyelets for the lacings,” she said. “Oh! they’re easy and fun,” he told her. “You’ll need a stiletto to punch the holes. Then you overcast the edges of the hole so the lacings can go in and out easily.” “Where shall I get a stiletto and what is it?” Margaret asked Sir Bodkin. She thought he was a very funny little man to be always asking for the queerest things. “Your Mother must have one in her work-basket or her sewing-table or her embroidery-bag, I’m thinking,” he replied. “I’ll look. I don’t want to disturb her ’cause she’s so busy. But she doesn’t mind when I look through her things if I leave them just as I find them,” she told him. “What does the stiletto look like?” “It’s made either of bone or of ivory or of steel and is about four inches long. It’s very sharp at one end to pierce the material and the other end is usually fancy,” he explained.