IT was Sunday morning, and Merrimeg was always good on Sunday. Everybody was in church,—everybody but Merrimeg. Her mother had let her stay at home as a reward, because she had done her sweeping so neatly.
The house was empty, and there was not a soul in the village street.
Merrimeg was sitting at the front window, looking at pictures in a book and telling herself stories about them. Sometimes she would gaze out of the open window at the sunshine.
After a while she stopped talking to herself, and looked up and listened. She was sure that she heard a sound in the street. It was a kind of clop-clop! and it seemed to be coming nearer. She peeped around the corner of the window and looked out.
[30]Two pairs of wooden shoes, quite small, were coming down the street side by side, towards her house. Each pair of wooden shoes was walking along in the usual way, but the astonishing thing was that there were no feet in them. There was nobody at all in them. They were walking along all by themselves.
Merrimeg opened her eyes wide. She had never seen such a sight as that before. Clop-clop! went the wooden shoes on the hard ground, just as if two people were stepping down the street. But no, there was nothing anywhere in the street but those two pairs of shoes, coming along clop-clop!
Merrimeg held her breath and watched to see the shoes go by her window. Clop-clop! they came, sounding plainer and plainer; clop-clop! right up to the door of her house; and when they came to the door, there they stopped.
Merrimeg drew her head back a little, getting ready to run if she had to, but she watched them with both eyes.
“I think this is a house,” said a voice.
[31]“I believe it is, brother, I believe it is,” said another voice.
Merrimeg looked all around, but she could see nobody. The voices seemed to be coming from the spot where the shoes were standing.
“What if she should be cross to-day?” said the first voice.
“Then she wouldn’t help us, brother,” said the other voice, “and what on earth would we do then?”
“But it’s Sunday,” said the first voice, “and they aren’t cross on Sunday, hardly ever.”
“That’s so, brother, that’s so,” said the other voice. “You do think of everything.”
“How would it do to knock?” said the first voice.
“I was just thinking about that myself,” said the other voice.
Merrimeg was listening with both ears, and she heard, as plain as could be, three knocks on the front door; but what it was that was knocking at the door, she couldn’t see. All that she could see was that two pairs of wooden[32] shoes moved up onto the doorstep, and stood there.
While she was wondering about it the knock sounded again, and without stopping to think any more she jumped up and ran to the door and opened it, not very wide, and looked down at the shoes.
“It’s herself, brother Nibby,” said a voice in the doorway.
“So it is, brother Malkin, so it is,” said the other voice.
“Why, it’s the two gnomes!” cried Merrimeg. “But where are you?”
“She can’t see us, of course,” said the first voice.
“No, of course not,” said the second voice. “I forgot that.”
“If you’re there,” said Merrimeg, “come in!” and she opened the door wide.
The two pairs of shoes stepped into the room, and stood with their toes towards Merrimeg.
“Do you suppose she’ll be willing to help us?” said the voice of Malkin the gnome.
[33]“Just what I’m wondering, brother,” said the voice of Nibby.
“Of course I’ll help you!” said Merrimeg. “What’s the matter?”
“She’s pretty good to-day,” said Malkin’s voice.
“I can see that, brother,” said Nibby’s voice.
“I can’t see anything at all!” cried Merrimeg. “Where are you, anyway? Are you here, or where?”
“Of course she doesn’t know what the witch has done to us,” said the voice of Malkin.
“No, she doesn’t know that the witch has taken away our bodies,” said the voice of Nibby.
“And we want to get them back,” said Malkin’s voice.
“And we want her to help us,” said Nibby’s voice.
“It’s a frightful nuisance being without a body,” said Malkin’s voice.
“She ought to know that without being told, I should think,” said Nibby’s voice.
[34]“How can I help you?” said Merrimeg. “I’ll do anything I can.”
“She isn’t cross at all to-day,” said Malkin’s voice.
“No, it’s Sunday,” said Nibby’s voice.
“She’d better come along with us at once, then,” said Malkin’s voice.
“Yes,” said Nibby’s voice, “they’ll throw our bodies down the well if we don’t hurry.”
“Suppose you tell her, then.”
“Oh, no, brother, you’re the one to tell her.”
“Oh dear no, brother Nibby, you are the one to——”
“I’ll come!” said Merrimeg. “Never mind telling me. Go ahead, and I’ll follow you!”
The two pairs of wooden shoes turned and went out of the open door, and Merrimeg followed them as they went clop-clopping down the street.
 
THE CLOP-CLOP SHOES WENT ON INTO THE WOODS
 
They left the village and went into the woods. They found a path which Merrimeg had never seen before, and they walked along this path, under the trees and bushes, and across little[35] streams, for a long, long time; and the woods grew thicker and thicker, so that at last they could not see the sun, and it was very dark; and all the while the two pairs of little shoes went on before, and Merrimeg followed behind.
“I suppose we’d better tell her the right word now,” said the voice of Malkin, “before we meet old Verbum Sap.”
“Yes, before we meet old Sappy,” said Nibby’s voice.
“Dear me!” said Malkin’s voice. “Blest if I haven’t forgotten the word myself!”
“Oh, mercy on us, whatever will we do now?” said Nibby’s voice.
“Oh dear, oh dear!” said Malkin’s voice. “If I could only remember the word! Isn’t it something like cat-tails?”
“No, no, brother, nothing like that!”
“Can’t you remember the word, brother Nibby?”
“Oh, me? Oh dear yes, brother, I know what the word is. But you’ve forgotten it, brother Malkin! Whatever shall we do now? We’ll[36] never get our bodies back without the word, never, never!”
“But don’t you know what it is, brother Nibby?”
“Oh yes, brother Malkin, but what good will that do, if you don’t know what it is?”
“That’s so, that’s so. I never thought of that. Oh dear me, I’m sure I don’t know what we’re going to do about it.”
Merrimeg very nearly lost all patience at this.
“Why don’t you tell him what it is, then?” she said.
“I do hope she isn’t going to be cross,” said Malkin’s voice. “But anyway, that’s a pretty good idea. Suppose you tell me what the word is? Isn’t it something like cat-tails?”
“Nothing like that, brother, nothing like that!”
“What is it, then?”
“It’s kitten-tails!”
“Then we’d better tell her now, before old Sappy comes up, so she’ll know the word.”
[37]“Which one of us had better tell her?”
“I think you should be the one to tell her, brother Nibby——”
“Oh bother!” said Merrimeg. “I know what the word is now. It’s kitten-tails.”
“She’s getting cross, she’s getting cross, brother Nibby,” said Malkin’s voice. “Do you think we’d better go back?”
“I’m not cross,” said Merrimeg. “Please excuse me. I won’t speak so any more.”
“I believe it’s all right, brother Nibby,” said Malkin’s voice. “Now y............