“Indeed!” said Leo, lazily; he was already tired of the whole matter.

“Yes, vain and pretentious.  Look at your father and his poems; he thinks his doggerel verses a mark of genius.”

“What has my father done to you that you attack him so rudely?” asked Leo, angrily.

“Ah! you are aroused at last.  I am glad.  What has your father not done, you had better ask.  But I acknowledge that I am rude, and I won’t say more than just this:  Your father has failed to prepare you for your duties.  Trouble is coming, and how are you to meet it?”

“Don’t know, and don’t care,” came out with characteristic Lazybones indifference.

“Ah! my dear Prince, do not speak so; it is quite time you knew and cared.  Do you study geography?”

“Sometimes.”

“All surface work, I suppose?”

“Probably.”

“Now my plan of study comprehends an interior view of the earth’s formation.”

Leo gave a tremendous yawn, and said,

“Oh, please don’t bother any more; I am awfully tired.”

“So I should think.  Well, do you want to be amused?”

“No; I don’t want anything.”

“Come with me, then.”

“Where?”

“No matter where; just do as I bid you.”

“How can I, when I don’t even see you?”

“True.  It will be necessary to anoint your eyes; shall I do it?”

“Just as you please.”

Leo felt a little pressure forcing down his eyelids, and the pouring of a drop of cool liquid on each.

When he opened his eyes again there stood before him the quaintest, queerest being he had ever beheld.

CHAPTER III

Leo had heard of kobolds and gnomes and elves, but in all his wanderings over the Lazybones estate in the brightness of noon, the dewy dawn, or dusky eve, or later when the moon bathed every shrub in silver, he had never so much as caught a glimpse of fairy folk.

Here, however, was a real elf—­a most peculiar person.  He was extremely small, thin, and wiry, about two and a half inches high, and his costume a cross between that of a student or professor and that of a miner, for on his bushy head was a miner’s cap with a lantern, and on his back was a student’s gown, while his thin legs were incased in black silk stockings, and his feet in rough hobnailed boots.  Slung over one shoulder was a leather bag, and in his hand was a curious sort of a tool.

“The Master Professor Knops has the honor of saluting Prince Leo Lazybones,” was the way in which this extraordinary person introduced himself, making at the same time a deep bow and a military salute, but with no raising of the cap from which the little lantern gleamed with a bright blue flame.  Leo returned the salutation with a lazy grace, smiling curiously upon the queer little object before him, who proceeded to say: