“Oh, no!  I’m out of that business now,” said the other.  “I’ve come this time for something entirely different.  But I’ll let this little girl tell you what it is.  She can do it a great deal better than I can.”

So Corette stepped up to the Practicing Wizard, who was a pleasant, elderly man, with a smooth white face, and a constant smile, which seemed to have grown on his face instead of a beard, and she told him the whole story of the fairy sisters and their cottage, of her great desire to see it, and of the difficulties in the way.

“I know all about those sisters,” he said; “I don’t wonder you want to see their house.  You both wish to see it?”

“Yes,” said the Reformed Pirate; “I might as well go with her, if the thing can be done at all.”

“Very proper,” said the Practicing Wizard, “very proper, indeed.  But there is only one way in which it can be done.  You must be condensed.”

“Does that hurt?” asked Corette.

“Oh, not at all!  You’ll never feel it.  For the two it will be one hundred and eighty ducats,” said he, turning to the Reformed Pirate; “we make a reduction when there are more than one.”

“Are you willing?” asked the Reformed Pirate of Corette, as he put his hand in his breeches’ pocket.

“Oh yes!” said Corette, “certainly I am, if that’s the only way.”

Whereupon her good friend said no more, but pulled out a hundred and eighty ducats and handed them to the Practicing Wizard, who immediately commenced operations.

Corette and the Reformed Pirate were each placed in a large easy-chair, and upon each of their heads the old white-faced gentleman placed a little pink ball, about the size of a pea.  Then he took a position in front of them.

“Now then,” said he, “sit perfectly still.  It will be over in a few minutes,” and he lifted up a long thin stick, and, pointing it toward the couple, he began to count:  “One, two, three, four——­”

As he counted, the Reformed Pirate and Corette began to shrink, and by the time he had reached fifty they were no bigger than cats.  But he kept on counting until Corette was about three and a half inches high and her companion about five inches.

Then he stopped, and knocked the pink ball from each of their heads with a little tap of his long stick.

“There we are,” said he, and he carefully picked up the little creatures and put them on a table in front of a looking-glass, that they might see how they liked his work.

It was admirably done.  Every proportion had been perfectly kept.

“It seems to me that it couldn’t be better,” said the Condensed Pirate, looking at himself from top to toe.

“No,” said the Practicing Wizard, smiling rather more than usual, “I don’t believe it could.”

“But how are we to get away from here?” said Corette to her friend.  “A little fellow like you can’t sail that big boat.”