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After sitting like this for a while, she got up. Her eyes ached, and it was getting late. The big kitchen clock was on the stroke of twelve. She put her sewing away in her work-basket, and carried the saucepan and the dish of parsnips into the scullery. Then she swept up the spare roots into a corner of the hearth, and put the little stool tidily away under the table.

But she could not see anything of the parsnip which Peter had let fall. Possibly it had rolled behind the stove.

“I shall be sure to find it in the morning, when I light the fire,” she thought.

She put out the lamp, and stepped softly into the chamber where the rushlight burned dimly. Then with one passing glance at the sleeping boy, she undressed herself and prepared for bed.

In a few moments more all her cares and troubles had vanished in slumber.

THE LITTLE MAN IN THE YELLOW COAT–A MOUSE-RIDE AT MIDNIGHT–THE HOLE IN THE WALL–AMONG THE PARSNIP-MEN–QUEEN MARY–THE BLUE DRESS–A CAKE-FEAST–ONE!

Little Peter had been asleep for a long time, when all at once he found himself suddenly twitched by the arm. He rolled over, rubbed his eyes, and then, to his amazement, saw the little Parsnip-man sitting by him on the quilt.

He did not look a bit like a parsnip now. He had on a long yellow coat, and a little green hat on his head; and he nodded in quite a friendly way to Peter.

“Come along! Be quick!” he said. “We must be off. But wrap up well, for it’s cold outside.”

“Where are we going to?” asked little Peter. “Into the cave? And is Mamma going too?”

“No,” said the little man. “She’s stopping at home. But do be quick, for the feast has begun.”

And with that he gave such a jump on to the floor that the boards fairly creaked again, and little Peter, slipped out of bed after him. The little Parsnip-man helped him on with his shoes and stockings, and Peter put on the rest of his clothes himself.

Then the Mannikin pulled out a little whistle and blew on it. Immediately there was a rustling under the bed, and then two mice peeped out.

In a moment the Parsnip-man caught one, and vaulted on to its back.

“You get on the other,” he said to Peter.

“But it isn’t big enough to carry me,” said Peter doubtfully.

“Get up, I tell you!” said the little man, laughing.

Peter did as he was told. Doubtless he had been growing smaller, for when he was fairly astride he sat the mouse as if it had been made for him. As to the mouse, it kept perfectly still for Peter to mount.

“Now, sit fast!” cried the Mannikin; and Peter had hardly seized the ears of the mouse (for want of reins), when his new steed ran away with him under the bed.

Then all of a sudden it became quite dark.

“Where are we?” cried Peter, for the mouse galloped on, and Peter was getting frightened.

“We are in the cellar,” the voice of the Parsnip-man replied at his side. “Don’t be frightened; it will be light again in a minute or two.”

Accordingly, in a few moments, Peter could see all around him. They had emerged from the cellar, and were now in the street. The wind had fallen, and there was a dead calm. The street-lamps were burning with a somewhat dim light, however.

Peter could now plainly see the form of the little Parsnip-man riding beside him. The mice scampered on and on.

A watchman was standing in the doorway of a house. His halberd reposed against the wall beside him. Probably the watchman himself was reposing, for he never moved when the mice and their riders went by. They rode to the end of the street, and there, before an old deserted house which Peter had often shuddered to look at in the daytime, the mice stopped.

“Here we are!” said the Parsnip-man, jumping down from his mouse.