Sir Bodkin saw his little mistress hard at work and quietly crept up on the table beside her to find out what she was sewing. He was very curious and jealous of what she did without asking him. You see, when a Bodkin and his subjects come to live in any one’s work-basket they belong heart and soul to that person. Especially so if they have been bought from a store and given for a present. People sometimes become so fond of their One-Eyed Fairies, they use them for years and they become great pets. They miss certain ones very much when they become lost or broken.

“It’s because we’re made of such finely tempered steel,” Sir Bodkin once explained to Margaret.

“Now those are done!” at last exclaimed Margaret to herself holding up the tea-cloth stamped with a design of flowers. She had just finished outlining the leaves and stems in green embroidery cotton.

“What is it, My Lady?” asked Sir Bodkin unable to control his curiosity any longer.

“Oh, how do you do?” said Margaret to him. “Sh-h-h, don’t say a word. I am doing this for Mother as a surprise. She’s giving a tea-party soon and I want to work these flowers on this tea-cloth. Do you know how to make them pretty?”

“Yes, My Lady,” answered Sir Bodkin, “they can be done easily and effectively with lazy-daisies for petals and French knots for centers.”

“Those are funny names,” laughed Margaret, “but you know all about the stitches, so I’ll take your word for it. What colors do you think would be nice to work them in?”

“Everything is color nowadays. You could use pinks and blues with yellow centers,” replied the tiny King.

“That would look gay, and quite right for afternoon tea, I think,” said Margaret, getting out her embroidery-bag and selecting the colors from the French embroidery cotton in it.

Embroiderer was harnessed with pink for the first flower.

“Don’t forget to work the petals from the center all the time,” Sir Bodkin said to him.

“I know, Sire,” he replied and stepped on the wrong side of the tea-cloth to fasten the thread underneath the flower center, then he sang:

“It goes easier than it sounds,” said Margaret as she and the Fairy made lazy-daisy petals of pink, then blue, all along the tea-cloth.

“With the yellow centers, it will look very handsome,” replied Sir Bodkin.

“Now for the Frenchies,” laughed Margaret when all the flower petals were done. “I wonder what time it’s getting to be.”

Just then the big grandfather clock downstairs in the hall struck five.

“I’ll have time to start the centers before it’s time to wash my hands and face and brush my hair for dinner. I wish I had the time with me then I wouldn’t always be running round looking at clocks,” sighed Margaret.

She harnessed Embroiderer with yellow, and made a knot in one end of the thread as the King told her to do.

“All ready,” said Sir Bodkin.

“Yes, Your Majesty,” answered the Fairy and stepped up through the cloth from the wrong side to the right side in the flower center. Margaret pulled the cotton through, the knot holding it fast and the Fairy sang:

After the embroidery cotton had been pulled all the way through, it left a little round knot on the right side in the flower center. Sir Bodkin told Margaret to bring the fairy up through again to make another French knot in the flower center.

“Five knots are about right for one flower,” said he. So Margaret and the fairy Embroiderer made that number in each one.

“You have to hold the cotton tight with your left hand as you push him in, or it doesn’t make a pretty knot, does it?” said Margaret after a while.

“Yes, you have to get the knack, as you do in almost any kind of stitchery,” remarked Sir Bodkin.