“I am beautiful! Oh, so, so beautiful!” said a hoarse voice.

Kitty, looking round, saw—well, she could not say what sort of a creature she saw—as she had never seen one like it before. It bore a sort of resemblance to a frog, but that was perhaps because it wore a green coat and a bulging shirt-front; then it was a very large frog, as big as herself. It had a human face—a broad, bland, beaming face—with a smile that seemed to curl all round it. In her life Kitty had never seen such a steady, satisfied smile.

The green-coated creature wriggled and twisted itself till Kitty thought it would wriggle and twist itself out of existence. On beholding Kitty it made her a low bow, and said with a flourish of its hand:

184“Admire me and I shall admire you.”

“Oh, but I don’t want to be admired,” said Kitty, trying to smother a laugh. “Indeed, indeed, I don’t want to be admired.”

“Not—want—to—be—ad—mired!” exclaimed the frog-like one, throwing itself back, sticking out its left leg, and uplifting its two 185arms in an elegant attitude of dismay. Yet for all its dismay it continued to smile.

“I think it would be dull,” said Kitty, speaking slowly to keep her voice steady. “It would feel like having one’s best frock always on, and being afraid of jumping about.”

“But that is the very way; the very only way you ought to strive to feel,” cried the frog, wringing its hands in an agony of earnestness; “always as if you had your best frock on.”

“It would be very dull,” said Kitty in a tone of conviction; “very dull! just as if one were always sitting or standing for one’s photograph.”

“But that is just the way one ought always to sit or stand, as if one were having one’s photograph taken. The very, very, very only way.” The force of its conviction affected the frog so profoundly that tears filled its goggle eyes; still it continued to smile.

Kitty was wondering how it could weep and smile, when it put its feet in the third position of dancing and made her a low bow.

“You have summed it all up in two sentences: 186to feel always as if you were wearing your best frock and having your photograph taken. That is what we ought all to strive to feel. You understand me. Tit for tat, I understand you. Let us dance.”

Kitty felt her finger tips taken by those of the frog. She did not like to withdraw them, and the next moment she found herself dancing a stately minuet. Step, twirl, bow, and courtesy. The brook played the accompaniment, the branches above swayed to the measure of the dance; Kitty and her partner danced on. The naughty sprite twisted and frolicked with them. Step, twirl, bow, and courtesy. In all her life Kitty had never made so many courtesies.

The frog’s contortions grew more and more extraordinary, and still the brook babbled, and still the branches swayed in tuneful accompaniment to the stately dance.

Was it her guardian child who whispered in Kitty’s ear, “Christmas Day! Christmas Day!”

“Dance! dance!” said the sprite, skipping with glee. But Kitty stopped in the middle 187of a courtesy, the sense of hurry overtook her. “I beg your pardon,” she said; “I must stop dancing now.”

Her frog-like partner took no notice. Step, wriggle, bow, he went on as if he did not hear, and Kitty walked away. When she turned to look the creature was still twisting, stepping, bowing.

188“Conceited thing!” she muttered. “He is so filled up with himself he does not miss me. He does not know even that I am gone. I wonder what he is?”

“Goblin Vanity,” whispered her guardian child. “Take care!”

Kitty now gave a cry of surprise as she saw the prettiest garden. It stood to the left in a hollow, away from the path over which brooded the star. It was such a quaint, sweet garden, full of flower-beds and laid out in smooth lawns, and bowers, and lovely hide-and-go-seek places.

A glass palace glittered at a little distance. A fountain tossed its bright waters like a silver plume; swans swam in and out of the spray, peacocks strutted on the greensward. Kitty thought she had never in all her life seen a garden so inviting. The sound of delightful musical boxes tinkled from afar. All at once a crowd of children came dancing out of the glass palace. They looked like fairies, their dresses were so glittering, their movements so graceful. They all beckoned to Kitty.

189“Do not look toward them! Look to the star!” whispered the guardian child.

“Bother the star! What harm is there in looking toward that pretty garden and those merry children?” muttered the sprite.

Suddenly there appeared on the path a step or two in front of Kitty—she could not tell how he came there or whence he came—the prettiest little boy. He had a rosy mouth and laughing blue eyes. He wore a white suit all embroidered in flowers of lovely tints; his hair was frizzed and curled.

“We are all waiting for you,” he said in a coaxing voice, stretching out his hand to her.

“For me!” exclaimed Kitty, very much surprised.

The boy took her hand. She was so much astonished that she did not hear her guardian child sighing in her ear, “Beware! beware!” or feel the sprite dancing on her left shoulder.

Before she knew what she was doing she was running down into the garden. The moment she reached it the sound of musical boxes burst out louder; she was surrounded by little boys 190and girls who looked at her with sparkling eyes. Indeed, it seemed to Kitty that everything looked at her: the peacocks on the sward, the swans on the water, the birds hovering in the air or peeping down from the branches, looked at her; the flowers and grasses stood up on tiptoe to gaze at her. She felt quite uncomfortable at attracting so much attention; she wished she had not gone out in that old school-roo............