Where do you think she was? She was in a little house under the ground. The moss was the roof of the house, and she fell right down through it into a little kitchen, where two gnomes were sitting at a table eating their dinner. She sat down plump on the floor, and stared at the gnomes.
[Illustration: “BLESS MY SOUL!” SAID ONE OF THE GNOMES]
“Bless my soul too, brother!” said the other gnome.
“I’ll tell you what it is, brother Nibby,” said the first gnome, “the roof’s broken in again.”
“I believe you’re right, brother Malkin, I believe you’re right,” said the other gnome.
“What’ll we do with her?” said the gnome called Malkin.
“Whatever you say, brother,” said the gnome called Nibby. “You always know best.”
“So she is, brother, so she is,” said the other gnome.
“But not quite all black,” said the first gnome.
“No, not quite,” said the other one. “How clever you are, brother Malkin.”
“I see a white place behind her ear,” said brother Malkin.
“There’s a white place behind her ear, sure enough,” said brother Nibby. “I wouldn’t have noticed it myself.”
“Then why isn’t she white all over?” said brother Malkin.
“Ah! that’s the point!” said brother Nibby. “Why isn’t she?”
“Because she’s never been thrown onto the Great Snow Mountain,” said Malkin.
“That’s it, that’s it, just what I was going to say,” said Nibby.
“Then we’d better throw her onto the Great Snow Mountain,” said Malkin.
“That’s a very clever idea, brother,” said Nibby. “I don’t know why I didn’t think of it myself.”
“But suppose she doesn’t want to be white?” said Malkin.
“That’s so,” said the other. “I never thought of that.”
“How will we find out?” said brother Malkin.
“That’s the trouble,” said Nibby. “How are we ever going to find out?”
“How would it do to ask her?” said Malkin.
“That’s a very good idea,” said brother Nibby. “How you do think of things!”
“Which one of us had better ask her?” said Malkin.
“Oh, that should be you, brother,” said Nibby.
“I think you should be the one,” said Malkin.
“Oh, no indeed, brother Malkin, no, no, no, no, no,----”
“I’ll tell you!” cried Merrimeg, jumping to her feet, out of all patience with these gnomes. “I _do_ want to be white! I do! I do!”
“I believe she wants to be white,” said brother Malkin.