When a child has made a great pet of one down here, I've heard tell the fairies take him up there when his parents and nurses think he's sleeping quietly in his bed, and make him work hard all night, with his own particular little black dog on his back.

And it's so dreadfully heavy--for every time he takes it on his back down here it grows a pound heavier up there--that by morning the child is quite worn out.

I dare say you've noticed how haggard and miserable some ill-tempered children get to look--now you'll know the reason." "Thank you, cuckoo," said Griselda again; "but I can't say I like this opinion about the other side of the moon any better than the first.

If you please, I would rather not talk about it any more." "Oh, but it's not so bad an idea after all," said the cuckoo.

"Lots of children, they say, get quite cured in the country of the little black dogs.