The baker stood and stared at her, and seemed to be half angry. At last he said, “I am sure I don’t know anything about fools. You had better go on to the cake-maker, who lives a mile up the hill. He is, to my mind, the biggest fool in these parts.” And tossing his basket about and seeming to be much offended, he went his way. Hulda went on for a mile up the hill, and there she found a little group of cottages, and in their midst was a shop with an open oven, and she could see its owner busy making cakes and sweets. Hulda went in and bought a cake, and as she sat and ate it, she asked the man timidly if he knew many of the people in that neighbourhood, and if any were very ignorant and foolish. “Indeed,” cried the man, “you may well ask that. Why, a more silly, ignorant set of folk I never knew, quite different from the people in my native town, but that is miles away.” “And who do you think the silliest then?” asked Hulda. “Why, for sure ’tis hard to say,” said the man, scratching his head. “They’re such a poor silly lot, right away from the Mayor down to Tommy the fool.” “And who is Tommy the fool?” asked Hulda eagerly. “’Tis a poor natural-born idiot who lives with his mother in the little cabin on the side of the common. He spends all his time trying to catch a bird, and he never has caught one, and never will.” “Thank you for telling me about him,” said Hulda, rising to go away. “Maybe if he is really a fool he could answer my questions as they say,” and she went on again with a lighter heart. At last she came to the common on which the fool lived with his mother. When she approached the little cabin, she saw some one dancing about in front of an oak, dressed up with the feathers of birds and fowls, which looked as if they had been picked up from the ground. He was a young man of about eighteen, and he had a cheerful face, but any one looking at him could see at once he was an idiot. He was dancing round the tree and pointing up to the birds, and calling them to come down to him. Hulda came up and stood quite close and watched him, as he ran round smiling and giggling. Then she said, “Please can you tell me where I shall find a little man, a dwarf who drives a donkey covered with pipes and fiddles?”