* * * * *

The Second Scene

When the curtain opens this time, you can see into the Room of the House, just as Mother Goose promised.  Notice that on one side of the fire-place is a window with curtains drawn, on the other, a washstand with howl and pitcher.  In front, on right and left, are two large beds.  In the middle of the room, with her hack to the fire-place, the Grandmother is seated on a low chair, and about her in a half-circle on stools, sit the eight grandchildren, four girls and four boys, all in their night-clothes and wrappers.

ISABEL begins by asking:  Grandmother, how old are you?

GRANDMOTHER replies:  How old do you think, my dear?

ISABEL guesses:  A hundred?

Almost, says GRANDMOTHER:  Why, I can remember when all your mothers and fathers were little boys and girls like you.  Your mother, Margaret and Sally, and your father, Jack and Tom and Helen, and your father, Isabel, and your mother, Ned and Frank, were my little boys and girls, you know; and on Christmas Eve I used to sit with them in the nursery, just as I am sitting with you now.  That is why I told them to go downstairs and leave me alone with you for a little while tonight—­for the sake of old times.  Yes, they used to sit around me just like this, and then I used to tell them a story.

A story!  A story! cry ALL THE CHILDREN.

And GRANDMOTHER says:  Shall I tell you one? The children all nod.  Let me think, says she.

The Wind Fairies are heard outside, making the wind-noise, like this: 

  z—­z—­z z—­z—­z z—­Z—­Z—­Z—­z—­z—­z
  z—­z—­z z—­z—­z z—­Z—­Z—­Z—­z—­z—­z

GRANDMOTHER listens to them, then begins her story:  Well, once there was a wicked king, who didn’t like cold weather; so he sent his soldiers, and told them to catch all the cold Wind Fairies and—­

TOM interrupts her to ask:  Are there really Wind Fairies, Grandmother?

GRANDMOTHER answers:  Of course there are.  I think I heard them a moment ago.  Listen!

They all listen.  The Wind Fairies are heard outside, like this: 

  z—­z—­z z—­z—­z z—­Z—­Z—­Z—­z—­z—­z

Do you hear them? asks GRANDMOTHER. The children all nod.  Yes, she continues, going on with the story, the king told his soldiers to catch all the Wind Fairies, and all the Snow Fairies, and Jack Frost himself, and to lock them all up in prison.

And did the soldiers do it? asks HELEN.

Yes, answers GRANDMOTHER.  They locked up all of them except one little Wind Fairy, and he was so small and so quick, that they couldn’t catch him; and what do you suppose he did?  He rattled the windows so hard that the king couldn’t sleep, and he blew so hard down the chimney and through the cracks around the doors, that he blew out all the lights in the king’s house, and gave the king such a bad cold in his head, that—­