'Ha!' Sir Richard opened his eyes. 'Houses like flat nests did our
Devils make, where their imps lay and looked at us. I did not see them
(I was sick after the fight), but Witta told me, and, lo, ye know it
also? Wonderful! Were our Devils only nest-building apes? Is there no
sorcery left in the world?'

'I don't know,' answered Dan, uncomfortably. 'I've seen a man take
rabbits out of a hat, and he told us we could see how he did it, if we
watched hard. And we did.'

'But we didn't,' said Una, sighing. 'Oh! there's Puck!'

The little fellow, brown and smiling, peered between two stems of an
ash, nodded, and slid down the bank into the cool beside them.

'No sorcery, Sir Richard?' he laughed, and blew on a full dandelion head
he had picked.

'They tell me that Witta's Wise Iron was a toy. The boy carries such an
iron with him. They tell me our Devils were apes, called gorillas!' said
Sir Richard, indignantly.

'That is the sorcery of books,' said Puck. 'I warned thee they were wise
children. All people can be wise by reading of books.'

'But are the books true?' Sir Richard frowned. 'I like not all this
reading and writing.'

'Ye-es,' said Puck, holding the naked dandelion head at arm's length.
'But if we hang all fellows who write falsely, why did De Aquila not