  Margaret hunted and hunted everywhere for Embroiderer. “Where can he be?” she said. “I would like to finish these French knots to-day.” “Where did you last see him, My Lady?” asked Sir Bodkin in distress. He, too, had been looking everywhere; in the needle-book and the work-basket and on the table-top, for the lost One-Eyed Fairy. This was the first time during the year they had lived with “Oh, I remember now where I left him yesterday!” cried Margaret. “I was in a hurry and stuck him ’way down deep into the pincushion.” “Then you’ll have to squeeze him out,” said Sir Bodkin. “Take the pincushion and squeeze the top and bottom together carefully, so if he’s there his toe won’t prick your fingers. Many a One-Eyed Fairy has been lost in a pincushion.” Margaret took up the red tomato pincushion and squeezed it and pinched it. “Here he is!” she cried as Embroiderer’s head began to poke through the top of the red cloth. “Of course you might have got yourself out, but we should have been frightfully worried,” said Sir Bodkin much relieved to see him again safe and sound. “Do you feel like helping me to do the rest of these French knots in the tea-cloth?” asked Margaret, putting him through the emery to dust off the sawdust. “Oh, yes! Some exercise would do me good,” he answered. Margaret and he worked busily and finished the tea-cloth. “Do you know that to-morrow will be my “So it will,” replied Sir Bodkin. “It doesn’t seem a year since we came to live with you, My Lady.” “No, the time has gone very fast for me. It’s been lots of fun knowing you all and learning how to sew and make pretty things,” said Margaret looking at her tiny friends with shining eyes. “We’ll always stick to you, My Lady,” they all cried. “I’m glad, for I never could do without you. Oh, there goes that clock striking half-past five! It’s late. I must hurry to tidy myself before Father comes home to dinner. Good-bye, dears,” she said running out of the room. Next morning early Sir Bodkin and the One-Eyes were wakened out of their sleep “Tick-tick,” it sounded. “Mercy sakes!” cried Sir Bodkin hopping up very much frightened. “I never heard such a queer noise in my life!” Every one of the One-Eyed Fairies was frightened, too. There in the work-basket among the sewing things was a long blue box. The noise was coming from inside. “Maybe it’s a bomb!” cried Baster who had a vivid imagination. “I think we’re all wrong!” said Sir Bodkin suddenly. “This is Margaret’s birthday and I believe this is for her, ’cause it looks something like a jewel-box to me and——” “A silver wrist-watch for my birthday!” “What’s the matter? What are you all looking at so intently!” cried Margaret herself just then as she jumped out of bed and ran over to see. “Oh, look!” she cried in delight, picking “A silver wrist-watch for my birthday!” gasped Margaret with her eyes growing bigger and bigger with surprise and pleasure. Sir Bodkin and all the One-Eyed Fairies fell back in astonishment. “Many, many happy returns of the day, My Lady!” said the King, bowing and bending. “That’s just what it says on this card,” cried Margaret and read aloud: “Many happy returns of your birthday, our dear, We wish, with this little surprise. For your stitches have made us quite glad all the year, With the help of your friends, the One-Eyes. “Mother, Father, and Brother Jim.” TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
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