Sandman's Goodnight Stories
beautiful cloth, and she found that it was quite wasted on the greedy little Goblins. 

 There were so many Goblins that the Fairies were obliged to spread a table on the ground for themselves, and when the rabbits appeared with the food the Goblins jumped up and helped themselves before the rabbits could serve them. 

 At last the Queen, seeing that it was of no use to have waiters for the Goblins, told the rabbits to put the ice cream and cake and lemonade and all the nice things on the table and let the Goblins help themselves. 

 The bad Goblins spoiled the beautiful cloth the spider had taken so much trouble to weave; they spilled the lemonade and they crumbled the cake and the poor Queen was in despair. 

 The Goblins, not getting the food quick enough to suit them, had climbed on the table, which, you remember, was spread on a rock. Now, this rock did not have any moss on it, and it happened that it was one of the doors to the home of the Gnomes. 

 The Gnomes are little brown men and they hide under the leaves and sticks that are so near the color of themselves that they cannot be seen, so they had been watching all that went on at the party, and, when they saw the Goblins on top of one of their rocks, part of their number hurried into the earth and opened the stone where the Goblins were. 

 Some of the Goblins were quick enough to escape, but most of them went into the ground, and all the cake and candy and ice cream with them. 

 The Queen and her Fairies jumped up and looked around. Everything was changed and the Fairies shivered as they looked. 

 The trees were brown and the bushes and the leaves were falling from the trees, making the ground look as though it had a brown carpet over it. 

 The air was frosty and the poor little Fairies looked about in amazement at the dreary scene before them. The Goblins that escaped were running around and calling on the Queen to help them rescue their brothers. 

 "It is all your fault," they told her.  "If you had asked the Gnomes to your party this would not have happened. Now you must help us to get our brothers out of the power of those bad Gnomes. 

 "What shall I do?" asked the poor Queen. She felt that her party had been a failure and thought if she had asked the Gnomes it could 
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