All at once he saw a great bumble-bee fly out of one of the tulips.
"There! that is something done," said a voice--a gentle, merry, childish voice, but so tiny.

"At last it was.

I thought he would have had to stay there all night, poor fellow! I did." Diamond could not tell whether the voice was near or far away, it was so small and yet so clear.

He had never seen a fairy, but he had heard of such, and he began to look all about for one.

And there was the tiniest creature sliding down the stem of the tulip! "Are you the fairy that herds the bees ?" he asked, going out of the summer-house, and down on his knees on the green shore of the tulip-bed.
"I'm not a fairy," answered the little creature.
"How do you know that ?" "It would become you better to ask how you are to know it." "You've just told me." "Yes.