All at once as the children looked about them, they began to see faces
everywhere, faces in the crotches of the trees, faces where the
branches crossed high above their heads, faces even in the undergrowth
about their feet. It reminded Rudolf of the puzzle pictures he and Ann
were so fond of studying where you have to look and look before you
can find the hidden people, but when once you have found them you
wonder how you could have been so stupid as not to have spied them
long before. He heard distinctly now the noises Ann had heard. It was
as if the hidden places of the wood were full of small live things
which were gathering together and coming toward the children from
every direction, closing them in on every side. Then somebody laughed
in a high cracked voice just behind them, one of Ann's curls was
sharply pulled, and Rudolf's precious sword was plucked from his hand
and tossed upon the ground. Still they could see no bodies to which
the little faces could belong, and they began to feel very queer
indeed.

Then came the laugh again, repeated a number of times and coming now
from directly over their heads where the branches of a great beech
tree swept almost to the ground. Rudolf and Ann looked up just in time
to catch sight of the queer little creatures who were looking down at
them from between the beech leaves. It was no wonder they had been so
hard to see, for they were dressed in tight-fitting suits of fur
exactly the color of the bark, and had small pointed fur hoods upon
their heads which made them look very much like squirrels. Even now
that the children had spied them out, it was impossible to examine
them closely for they were never quiet, never in the same place more
than an instant, but swung themselves restlessly from bough to bough,
then to the ground and back again in two jumps, peeping, peering,
racing each other along the branches, all the time without the