CHAPTER 4 - The Mice and the Chrysalis

It was Saturday morning before Ace could see again, but as soon as he could, he wanted to show the others what he’d learned.

“We went in number two,” he told them, “and I watched all these videos of rock concerts. It was brilliant. There’s a lot of things you have to do besides play. Phil, you have to wave your arms around a lot, and shake your head about. Will, you have to run about, and jump, and keep your head thudding with the beat. Dan, you and I have to wave the guitars around, and crash to our knees now and then, oh yes, and when you finish a solo, you have to hold the guitar like this.”
He held it close to him, with the neck pointing upwards next to his head, an expression of agonised passion on his face.

“Why?” asked Will. “What’s all that for?”
“Search me,” said Ace. “But they all did it, so it must be important. You’ll understand when we get going. It’s just being really dramatic, as dramatic as the music. Come on, let’s try it.”
Ace found a microphone set up for him. He looked at Will proudly.
“I knew you could do it,” he said.

They practised hard for hours, delighted with the sound they were making, until the clock told them it was afternoon. Then they packed up, because no-one wanted to miss seeing the mice.


Madge had arranged to meet the mice near the bare patch behind the houses, so the band sauntered over, with the bud crawling happily behind them. The fairies were already there, hiding in good cover. Ace squeezed in next to Clover.
“Hi, Clover,” he said cheerfully, expecting a scolding for being mad enough to watch television. It didn’t come. Clover had had a strange time, awake in the tree all night, and she wasn’t over it yet.

“Oh, hello Ace,” she said quietly.
Ace was stunned. I wonder what’s up? he thought.
Madge joined them, wriggling into a comfortable position.
“I’ve warned them not to overdo it,” she said. “Nice and natural, very gradual.”
Will snorted, and bit his lip. Oh, this was going to be good…

None of the children was out yet, but the mice were determined that the sprites should get a good reward for their wonderful fence. They came out in single file, walking on their hind paws, each with its tail looped over its left forepaw, and waving to the sprites with its right. Then each suddenly rolled itself into a ball, and they formed themselves into a circle of furballs, going round faster and faster, then slower and slower until they ground to a halt. After that, three of them stood in a row, and two of them jumped up onto their shoulders, and the last one jumped onto their shoulders, making a little pyramid. Then the three on the ground started walking, with the one on top pretending to wobble and sway, although his balance was really perfect.

Madge was beside herself.
“What do they think they’re playing at?” she spluttered, and got up to speak to them. But it was too late. Joseph’s feet came into view, and the mice gave great exaggerated shrieks of terror, with paws on their heads, or on their hearts, and dived for cover, winking and waving at the sprites as they passed. They crept out again as Dominic came along, and jumped about to be sure he'd noticed them, then scarpered in mock terror once more. The sprites were in hysterics - except Madge, of course.

Then Tony came, and the mice crept out with besotted smiles on their faces, tiny paws clasped in awe, trembling with admiration. Tony noticed them at once, and crouched down, fascinated. Madge relaxed - a little - as she realised that Tony probably couldn’t spot the different facial expressions as well as the sprites could. That one, for example, had just blown him a kiss, but he probably thought it was scratching its nose. She was right. Tony couldn’t see anything bizarre in their behaviour, he was just amazed he was seeing them at all. He didn’t even know they were woodmice, but he knew that all mice are nocturnal, so he was surprised to see six of them in broad daylight.

I suppose they’re very young ones, he thought.
He settled down to watch them, with a big smile on his face. They were all jumping about now. If he hadn’t known better, he’d have thought they were playing leapfrog. Tony held his hand out to one of them, and instantly it climbed onto his palm, and sat up, stroking its whiskers. It didn’t seem a bit frightened, but let Tony stroke its head. The others were clustering around too, pushing and shoving each other as if they wanted to be next, like children at a bus stop.
Tony set the first mouse down, and sure enough, straight away another one jumped onto his hand.

Look at its tiny paws, thought Tony, delighted. What intelligent eyes they’ve got, and what nice fur, brown on top and white underneath, with a little yellow streak in it.
“What are you looking at?”
It was Joseph. When the mice saw him, they cowered closer to Tony.
“Hey, where did you get all those mice?”
“I didn’t, they just came out of the long grass. Aren’t they great?”
“Ha! They really like you, don’t they? Hey, Adam, come and see this!”
Adam ran over, dribbling the football as he came.
“Tony’s trained some mice!”
“Don’t be daft, you can’t train mice. Especially people who can’t even train their dogs...hey, that’s cool! Look at them all standing there in a row! That was weird - they all moved at the same time, you’d have thought they were saluting!”
Tony was bewildered. This was unbelievable. But unbelievable things did happen, he knew that now. Greatly daring, he spoke to the mice.
“Sit!” he said.
Instantly, all six were cross-legged on the ground.
Wow, thought Tony, I wish Barking could see this. I’ll go and show him.
“Attention!” he said to the mice, and they jumped to their hind paws, heads proudly alert. “Forward march!”

Leaving Adam and Joseph with their mouths open, they followed Tony across Wildside, past Rowan and Dominic playing tennis over a fence, past number sixteen where Laura and Gemma were talking in the garden, down to where Barking Mad was splashing in the only patch of mud left from the rain. Everyone saw them, and though they thought it looked funny, they were impressed.
“Like the Pied Piper!” said Laura.

The sprites were following them, out of sight, though they could hardly move for laughing, and Phil was having great trouble keeping the bud from joining in.
But Barking Mad was not impressed. He might be slightly less intelligent than some animals, but he loved Tony, and Tony was his. He wasn’t going to be muscled out by six tiny squeakers. He gave one very loud indignant woof, and the mice scattered in genuine fear. The show was over. Tony didn’t hear the sprites’ applause, but the mice did. As soon as they were away from Barking, they stopped to take a bow, and then they went home.

The sprites stayed where they were, lying on their backs in the long grass, enjoying the sun on their faces.
“Oh, that was brilliant,” sighed Rose. “Weren’t they funny? Did you know they were going to do that, Will?”
“Just what I was going to ask,” said Madge drily.
“Well, not exactly,” said Will, edging away guiltily. “I knew they’d do what you wanted, but I thought they’d add a few touches of their own. You’re not mad, are you?”
“No,” smiled Madge. “They were brilliant. Worked a treat.”

Everyone lay quiet for a while, happy and relaxed. Phil stroked the thick skin on the bud’s head until he fell asleep. Then suddenly he asked,
“Is there an airport near here?”
The others were surprised. They were so used to aeroplanes going over all the time, they didn’t even notice them.
“Yeah, there is, few miles away,” Ace told him. “Why?”
“Oh, no reason. I just wondered why there were so many aeroplanes here, that’s all. They’re beautiful, aren’t they? So sleek and powerful. I’d love to see one close up. I bet they’re really huge when they’re on the ground.”
“They’re still huge in the sky,” grinned Ace.
Phil threw some grass at him.
“You know what I mean,” he said.
“We could go to the airport on a train,” Will pointed out. “Trains go there, I know. I read it on that timetable board at Chester.”
“Oh, don’t start another project yet,” moaned Dan, who couldn’t see why elves always had to be fascinated with forms of transport. “Let’s stick to what we’re doing, and get it right.”
“He’s right,” said Ace. “One thing at a time. In fact, we ought to get back to work.”
“Yeah, in a bit,” said Will. “Close your eyes for a while, don’t overdo it.”

Rose was getting worried about Clover. She’d hardly spoken since the night she’d spent in the tree. All these opportunities to make sarcastic remarks about the elves, and she hadn’t risen to one of them. Madge had noticed it too.
I hope I wasn’t too hard on her, she thought. I wanted her to do some serious thinking, not get depressed.


The innocent causes of Clover’s troubles, Laura and Gemma, were looking out for Tony. They had such amazing news. Rowan hadn’t really believed them, they could tell, but Laura thought that Tony might. When they saw Tony coming back down Wildside, they ran over to him.

“We’ve got some news! About you-know-what.”
Tony checked how far away his brothers were, then beckoned the girls to come well away from the houses.
“You want to keep away from fences,” he told them. “You never know who’s listening. Come this way, no, not in the nettles, in the grass. No-one can hear us here.”

No, thought Madge, only half the inhabitants of Wildside. This could be awkward.
“Keep still!” she hissed. “Keep absolutely quiet! Whatever you hear, d’you understand?”
Clover had her head in her hands. She’d guessed what was coming.
Oh, why here, of all places? Go away, Laura, go somewhere else! she thought desperately. But it was no use.

“Tony, you’ll never guess, we’ve seen a fairy, a real one!”
“That’s right,” added Gemma. “The most beautiful fairy, more beautiful than anything in the world.”
“No-one we know, then,” said Ace.
“Be QUIET!” said Madge.
The sprites were all listening intently.
“She was asleep on my pillow, and then she woke up, and we spoke to her!”
“Bet that was interesting,” said Ace.
“Ace, if you say another word I will personally strangle you,” hissed Madge.
Will looked at Clover, and understood. He nudged Ace, and he saw, too.
“She told us about this place - it’s really called Wildside - and about sprites, they’re elves and goblins and fairies, and trees are elves, not fairies.”

For a moment, Tony was tempted to say, “Yeah, right, Laura,” scathingly, and walk away. But something stopped him. Maybe it was the confident feeling the mice had given him. Maybe it was his own long-buried feeling for truth. Whatever it was, he said quietly,
“What did she look like?”
“Lovely,” breathed Laura. “Young, and slim, with creamy skin just like a clover, and that’s what her name was.”
Clover was sobbing, quietly.
“With streaks of colour on her skin?”
“That’s right! How did you know?”
Tony took a deep breath and got it out.
“I’ve seen one too. But, it wasn’t the same one. The one I saw was like, the age of a mum, quite podgy really, but very kind. Her streaks were blue, and she was very powerful. She mended that broken window.”
“Wow!” shrieked Gemma. “Did she have a magic wand?”
“No,” said Tony. “No wand. Did yours?”
“No, she didn’t. I hadn’t thought of that,” said Gemma.
“They live here, on Wildside,” sighed Laura. “Sprites do. And no-one knows but us. Maybe they can see us now. If we keep our eyes open, we might see some again.”
“I’d like to see an elf,” Tony admitted.
“Come and help us search for them, then,” suggested Gemma.
“No chance. With my brothers and Adam Chambers all over the place? I’d like to stay alive a bit longer. I believe you all right, but I can’t do anything about it. I daren’t,” he said simply, and with a smile he went off to join the other boys.
“Poor Tony,” said Laura. “It must be really horrible, being a boy.”
“Where shall we start looking?” said Gemma.
“Under the big tree,” said Laura firmly. “They live round there, I’m sure they do.”
Oblivious to who was hiding near their feet, the girls ran off towards the horse chestnut.

“Well!” spluttered Madge, when they’d gone. “Quite podgy really! You come all the way from Norway and that’s all the thanks you get!”
Clover knew she was trying to draw away the others’ attention, and she was very grateful, but it didn’t work. Everyone was staring at Clover. Cory might not have told them much, but he’d dinned that well enough into all of them, that they must never be seen by humans. No-one knew what to say.
“Oh, dear,” said Madge. “Don’t look so worried. There’s no great harm done, and it may be we can turn it all to good effect.”
“Those girls are very close to Cory’s house,” said Ace. “I think a couple of us ought to go and head them off.”
Madge turned round to look.
“My goodness, you’re right. Look, I’ll go, and I’m sure Phil and Dan will come and help me.”

They rushed off, and the others sat quietly for a while, as it dawned on three of them that Madge had done that on purpose, so they could stay with Clover and cheer her up.
“What happened?” said Will. “Tell us about it.”
“Rose and I were in number sixteen, searching for a piece of information. Rose got out, and I didn’t. No problem. The trouble was, I lay down on the pillow. I could have stayed awake if I’d tried. But I didn’t, so Laura saw me, and I talked to her, and to Gemma.”
She sighed, heavily.
“I’d like to talk to them again. They’re dears, both of them. But I’ll never be allowed to. I’ve messed them about, and endangered us all, just because I was lazy.”
“Did you get punished?” asked Ace.
“Yes. I had to stay awake all night, on my own, in the tree. It was awful, you realise such horrible things about yourself.”
“But no-one’s perfect!” said Will. “That could have happened to any of us. We’ve all been trapped in houses.”
“I suppose so, Will, but that doesn’t help when you’re the one it happened to. But then something really strange happened. I...I was crying, you see...and suddenly, I felt as if something, or someone, was calling me. As if someone was there.”

Will and Ace looked at each other.
“You get that sometimes, with trees,” said Ace. “Somehow you can hear what they’re saying. Maybe you’d been in it so long you began to hear it?”
“It could be, Ace, but I don’t think so. It was bigger, and further away, if you know what I mean. A clear voice, far away...and I knew what it wanted me to do. And I realised I’d never wanted anything so much in my whole life. I have to go with Madge and join the army.”
“Oh, Clover!” gasped Rose, her lips trembling.
“I know, Rose, I know. Although it made me happy, I’ve been feeling miserable ever since... and that was the thought of leaving Wildside, of leaving you. I don’t feel so bad now I’ve told you all. But have I made you unhappy, instead?”
“I don’t know, Clover,” said Will. “I’m not very good at analysing feelings. But I’d say, if you feel you’ve got to do it, you go for it. I would, if it was me.”
“Same here,” said Ace.
“What about you, Rose?”
“I would never try to stop you,” said Rose slowly. “But you’re my best friend. I can’t live without you. So... I’ll come with you!”
Clover cried, and hugged her. Ace shifted, uncomfortably. This was all getting far too emotional. Will smiled.
“Nice logic, Rose!”
“Let’s go and tell Madge,” said Rose.
“OK,” Clover agreed. She turned to the elves.
“Thank you,” she said. “And, Will...”
“Yes?”
“Get Phil to make you some new clothes too.”
The fairies flew off, leaving Will and Ace laughing.

“She’s better,” said Ace.
“Dead right. Let’s get back to work. Where’s the bud? He’s been asleep for ages...hey, look at this!”
Ace knelt down and saw what Will saw. The long sleep in the hot sun had finished the thickening of the bud’s skin. He had turned into a chrysalis.
“So,” he said heavily. “No more bud. He’s gone.”
“He’ll be back,” said Will, trying to feel cheerful.
“Then there’ll be a new elf.”
“I’m going to miss him,” sighed Will.
“Me too. First the fairies and now the bud, has everyone gone off us?”
“Don’t talk daft. Anyway, the fairies won’t go yet, they’ll wait for Madge.”
“Why should they wait for her?”
“Well, you have to go to Norway, don’t you? Can you imagine, can you seriously imagine Rose and Clover finding Norway?”
“Difficult,” Ace admitted. “Probably end up in New Zealand.”
“Uh-oh, here comes Phil. Will you tell him, or shall I?”
“You can,” said Ace. “But I hope he doesn’t cry. I’ve had enough of that for one afternoon.”


Laura and Gemma had gone in. They’d enjoyed searching for sprites, but they hadn’t found any. They were sure they’d heard some, though. They thought they’d heard voices calling, but when they ran towards a voice, they heard it again, somewhere else. Finally, Gemma had had a brilliant idea, and they’d gone into Laura’s house to carry it out.

Phil and Dan were exhausted from leading the girls away from the sprite houses. When they saw the girls go in, and the fairies zooming over to talk to Madge, they thankfully strolled off to find Ace and Will.
“Hi!” called Phil. “Is Clover feeling any better?”
“Yes, she is,” said Will. “But we’re not. Look at this.”
He held out the chrysalis, so stiff and brown, like a little coffin.
“Oh, no! Not already!”
Phil held his hands out, and Will gave him the chrysalis.
“Oh, bud,” said Dan sadly. “When will we see you again?”
“Never,” said Will. “He’ll be different. Oh, too many changes! The fairies are going, and the bud’s turned into a chrysalis!”
They wandered off towards the brook together.
“What d’you mean, the fairies are going?” asked Dan.
“They’re going to Norway to join the army,” said Ace.
“What!” said Phil. “Crumbs!”
“Both of them?” said Dan. “Why?”
“Clover wants to, and Rose won’t leave her.”
“They’re very brave,” said Dan approvingly.
“They certainly are,” agreed Phil. “I wish I was that brave.”

“The bud was brave, too,” said Ace. “He never made a bit of fuss when he got scratched. He’ll make a cracking elf, that’s for sure.”
“I remember when he smacked that magpie on the beak,” said Dan. “He was only a few weeks old, then.”
“He was,” Will agreed. “And d’you remember the first time he fell in the brook?”
“Yes, and Ace dived in and swam after him, and brought the bud out clinging round his neck.”

Ace screwed his face up, fighting for control, but it was no use. All the memories of that cheerful little face, its good humour and imperturbable courage, came flooding back to his mind. Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he sat down, sobbing and hiding his face with his hands. That finished everyone else off too, and in a minute, all four of them were crying.
“This is stupid,” said Ace, trying to stop, but he couldn’t.
“I know,” gasped Will. “He’s not dead, so why do we feel so bad?”

The fairies were coming to join them, but stopped in mid-air at the extraordinary sight. Madge took it all in at one glance.
“Buzz off, fast,” she muttered to the younger fairies. “See if you can find something good to drink.”
They understood, and flew off. Madge ripped a bit of petticoat and made four large handkerchiefs.

“Mop up,” she told them kindly. “You’ve got work to do.”
“What?” sobbed Phil.
“The dear little chap needs protection while he’s asleep,” Madge explained. “The chrysalis itself isn’t enough, not with magpies and hodgepigs around. He needs you to make him a shelter that no creature can break into, away from the sun and the damp, yet light enough for him to crack like an eggshell when he wakes up.”
“How long does it need to last?” asked Will, getting interested, which was just what Madge had intended, of course.
“Till winter, no longer. He’ll be back with us sometime in the autumn, I guess.”
“As soon as that?” said Ace, getting up. “That’s not too bad.”
“Where shall we make this shelter? Does it need to be outside?” asked Phil.
“Not necessarily,” said Madge. “Oh, are you thinking of your shed? That would be fine.”
Ace tripped over a root.
“Have your eyes gone again?” said Will.
Ace nodded, miserably.
Will put his arm round him.
“Come on, I’ll help you to the shed.”
“We can use the playpen,” sniffed Phil. “He’ll never need it again.”
“Stop it, Phil, talking like that,” said Will. “You’ll set us all off again.”


Later that evening, as the sunset turned the sky a glorious red, the sprites began to gather around the horse chestnut. Rose and Clover were the last to arrive. They’d flown quite a way to find something good to drink, that would cheer everyone up, and then they’d stopped to bottle it.
The others were gathered close around the trunk, reading something which had been pinned there. They made room for Rose and Clover, and they read it too. It was a letter.

Dear Wildside Sprites, (it said) we would love to meet you all. Please could we? We would not tell anybody, only Tony. He would like to meet you too, but he is scared of his brothers. With love from Gemma and Laura.

“Well!” said Madge. “It’s a thought. We have to do something for Laura and Gemma, or they’ll spend the rest of their lives wondering. Hmm... I still want to know about Sally Cain... listen, I’ll go and see if there’s an answer yet, then we’ll know what to do for the best.”
“Go where?” asked Will. “How does it work?”
“Oh, I only need to go somewhere where I can be quiet and alone,” Madge explained. “I usually nip over into Abney Park. As for how it works,” she added with a grin, “that’s top-secret army stuff, that is. See you in a bit!”

Rose passed everyone a bottle.
“Thanks,” said Ace. “What’s this? Smells a bit funny.”
“I don’t know,” said Rose. “But grown-up humans were drinking it.”
“How old d’you have to be, to be a grown-up sprite?” asked Will, opening his and settling down.
“Thirty-six,” said Phil. “It used to be forty-two, but they lowered it.”
“Oh well, we’d be grown-up if we were humans,” said Ace. “Tastes better than it smells.”
“I don’t like it,” said Rose.
“I do,” Dan told her. “It’s got a sort of bite to it.”
“It’s a lot better than that fairy liquid you brought back once,” said Will.
“Oh, don’t be mean, Will, that was ages ago! How was I supposed to know it wasn’t a drink?”
“What was it?” asked Phil.
“Soap!” they told him. “We were all sick, it was awful.”
“That happened to me once,” Phil told them. “Some of us went windsurfing, and got carried miles from home. We were trying to find our way back, and we were dying of thirst, when we saw this bottle of stuff and drank it. We never found out what it was, but it made us really sick. We got in terrible trouble.”
“You should never drink anything unless you’re certain what it is,” said Clover.
“What’s windsurfing?” said Ace and Will.
“Gosh, don’t you know? Oh, you’d love it. You wait for a windy day, in summer is best, when you’ve got full leaf to catch the wind. You jump up to the very top of a tree, then climb to the tip of a thin, whippy spray, and hang on tight. Then when the wind catches it, you get swung right over, and then you let go! And you fly through the air, and try to catch hold of another spray!”
“Brilliant,” said Will.
“Fantastic,” Ace agreed. “Oh, we must have a go of that! What do you think, Dan?”
“It sounds great,” she said. “But you know I’m not much of a jumper. I doubt I could get high enough. I bet it’s good to watch, though.”
“Oh, it is,” said Phil. “Very exciting.”

“What happens if you miss?” demanded Clover.
“Broken bones, sometimes. But it shouldn’t happen, if you’re any good. Or sometimes,” he added truthfully, “the fairies would be very kind and catch us. It’s really an elf-game,” he explained.
“You didn’t need to tell us that,” said Clover witheringly. “It’s the maddest, most insane thing I ever heard of.”
“Clover,” said Ace, opening his fourth bottle, “just because you’re going to join the army doesn’t mean you have to go all sensible. Sensible is boring.”
“That’s right,” said Will, who was keeping pace with him. “You’ll have to do dangerous things in the army, you know.”
“Maybe,” said Clover. “But there’ll be a reason. I don’t do dangerous things without a reason.”
“Having fun’s a reason!” said Ace.
“Leave them, Clover, remember what Madge said,” Rose reminded her. “They can’t help it, it’s the way they are.”

Ace sniffed at them both, and turned to Phil.
“So anyway, Phil, not all the sprites in your garden were boring, then?”
“Oh no,” said Phil. “Some of them were great. We were always getting in trouble. Rob, Camellia, Lily... I wonder how they’re getting on?” he said mournfully.
“Rob? You had an oak in a garden?”
“It was a very big garden. All gone. Garden gone. Friends gone. Bud gone. Fairies going. Sad. All sad.”
“Not sad,” said Will. “Friends here now. Gosh, my eyes have gone all funny.”
“So have mine,” said Ace.
“Yours were funny to start with.”
“I’m all right,” said Dan, opening her sixth bottle. “What’s the matter with you elves?”
“You’re an elf too, you twit,” said Will.
“Oh, yes. I think I’d better shut up.”

By the time Madge returned, the elves were swaying slightly and singing an Iron Maiden song very quietly in four different keys. When Madge landed, Rose passed her a bottle.
“What did you find? Something strong, by the look of them!”
She tasted it dubiously.
“Beer! Genuine Robinson’s beer from Stockport! Oh, well done, Rose, I haven’t tasted this for years!”
“Are you from round here yourself?” said Clover.
“Not far away,” Madge told her. “I was born in the kitchen garden of a big house in Cheshire called Arley Hall. But it’s been a while since I was in these parts. Last year, I was working in Scotland.”
“What were you doing there?” asked Rose.
“Trying to help a forest colony. Humans were going to make a new ski slope, hundreds of trees were being lost, and the colony’s land chopped in half. All sorts of problems - it was a sad case.”

She glanced at Ace. She didn’t think he’d heard her. She didn’t want him worrying about things like that, tonight; he’d had enough.
“But it’s good to be back,” she said brightly. “As soon as I heard your accents, I knew I was home. Now listen, everyone, this is important.”
The elves tried to sit up and look as if they were listening.
“I’ve heard from my friend Heather. She’s coming to see us at Midsummer’s Eve. And she found this out for us - Sally Cain saved a sprite’s life in 1977 when she was ten years old, on holiday at her grandmother’s home on the Isle of Man.”
“Who was the sprite?” said Rose.
“We don’t know. Only those facts were recorded, in the Register of Trustworthy Humans. But I think we can guess.”
“Oh!” said Clover. “Of course! Rowan. That’s a very unusual name for a human girl.”
“Exactly,” said Madge, “but a very common name for an elf. She’s probably never seen a sprite since. But whoever he was, she’s remembered him all these years, and named her eldest daughter after him.”
“If you ask me,” said Ace, “it’s a good job she didn’t save a fairy’s life and then have a boy. He’d be called Lavender or Marigold and then where would he be? Beaten up, that’s where he’d be.”
“Thank you, Ace, for that very helpful remark,” said Madge. “The point is, having your name written in the Register is a great honour. It’s hereditary. That means the honour belongs to your children too,” she explained.
“So does that mean... what does that mean?” stammered Clover.
“It means you can talk to Laura if you want to. And as Laura would naturally vouch for her friends, you can talk to them, too.”
“Oh, great!” said Clover, and Rose was delighted too.

The elves couldn’t see what all the fuss was about.
“Why would anyone want to talk to them?” said Ace.
“Just because they haven’t got wheels or engines doesn’t mean they’re not interesting, Ace,” said Clover tartly.
“She’s better,” said Will. “She’s definitely better.”
“Let’s answer their letter!” said Rose. “Let’s invite them to Midsummer’s Eve. We can have a real party. Madge’s friend is coming, and we can invite Laura, and Gemma, and Tony, and the mice!”
“And Hogweed,” said Will.
Everyone looked at him.
“What d’you want him for?” said Ace. “He’s a great gloomy dollop.”
“Feel sorry for him,” said Will.
“Why not?” said Madge, her eyes twinkling. “You want a good audience, don’t you?”


Next morning, as soon as she could, Laura called for Gemma, and the two of them ran across Wildside to the tree. And there, in place of their own letter, was another. It was written in golden ink, in writing so tiny they could hardly read it. It said:

Dear Laura and Gemma and Tony,
You are invited to the sprites’ Midsummer’s Eve party. Meet at dusk under the chestnut tree.
Then, more untidily underneath, signatures and messages.
XX Clover I got permission! Can’t wait to see you.
XX Rose I’m longing to meet you.
Ace I’m not. Shut up, Clover, I can put what I want. Oh, all right. You’re very welcome.
Will Bring a bottle (with something in it). By the way, thank you for the orange juice, Tony. It was VERY NICE.
Dan Bring your earplugs.
Phil I wish you could have met the bud but he’s gone to chrysalis.
Madge I’m the one you met, Tony. Don’t worry, it’s safe. They’re only young, they can’t help it.
Cory has not signed this letter, ’cos it would take forever to explain it to him, and he might say oh no, you can’t do that.
The goblins have not signed this letter ’cos they’re too stupid to write their own names. But you can meet the rest of us, thanks to Sally Cain.


Laura and Gemma read this again and again, feeling more and more amazed and excited every minute. With trembling fingers they unpinned the letter from the tree, and went to find Tony.