CHAPTER I.
WHERE THE PINS GO.

“I wonder where all the pins go,” said Harry to himself, as he examined the lapel of his coat, where he was sure he had stuck two or three that very morning.

Of course Harry was not the first boy who had thus wondered, but it was the first time the question had ever occurred to him. If he wanted a pin the only sure place to find one was on his mother’s cushion, because that was kept filled with new ones. But what became of all the old ones? He himself would sometimes lose several in a day, and yet he hardly ever found one, no matter how carefully he might look.

Just now, however, he saw one lying in the path before him, and was about to pick it up, when suddenly it vanished from sight. He rubbed his eyes and looked again, but it was certainly gone.

“That’s funny!” he thought; “I’m sure it was there.”

Stooping over, he put out his hand and seemed to touch something soft. He closed his hand and started back, when to his amazement he found in his grasp an object that looked like a small, round, pointed hat.

Now Harry knew a thing or two. He had read all about fairies and elves, and had seen pictures of them, and he concluded at once that this must be an elf’s hat. He put it on his head without delay, and sure enough, just as he expected, there stood an elf before him.

“Please give me back my hat,” said the little creature, in a beseeching tone.

“No, no,” replied Harry. “I’ve read about you elves, and I know you are my servant while I have your hat. I want to see where you live, and all that. And—oh! yes,” he exclaimed as a thought struck him; “what became of that pin that was here in the path? Did you take it?”

The elf nodded, and held out his hand, in which lay the pin.

“So that is the reason it disappeared,” said Harry. “Why did you pick it up?”

“That’s my work,” responded the elf. “I belong to the Pin Elves. We have to gather up the pins that you mortals lose or throw away.”

“How funny!” cried Harry. “But what do you do with them?”

“Well,” replied the elf, “a long time ago our king ran a needle in his foot. Now we have a law that whoever injures the King’s person shall be banished. Of course the King could not banish himself, so he had to banish all the needles. No sewing could be done after that, so we gradually took to using pins for fastening our clothes together, and now we need so many that most of our work is pin-gathering. That is the reason we are called the Pin Elves.”

Harry looked at the little fellow curiously and saw that his garments had neither button nor sewed seam. Shoes, stockings, tight breeches, belted coat,—all were fastened together with pins.

“But I thought that you elves worked at night only,” said Harry.

“So we do, usually,” responded the elf, “but some of us occasionally are sent out on a dark, cloudy day like this, when there is little danger of the sun shining upon us. I had bad luck last night, didn’t find a pin, so my master made me come out again to-day.”

“Well, I am your master now,” said Harry, “so you can stop work and go home. Only, you must take me with you.”

Off they started, the elf leading, in the direction of Central Park. The elfin hat which Harry wore made him invisible, and the elf himself of course was visible only to Harry; therefore they attracted no attention as they walked up the Avenue and along Fifty-ninth Street. They entered the Park at the Sixth Avenue gate, and went a little way until they came to a small rock with a rather flat top.

The elf scrambled up on this, and sticking a pin in a little hole in the centre and pressing upon it thrice, sang in a queer, croaking voice the following:

Immediately a door in the rock opened, disclosing a flight of stairs, down which the elf conducted Harry. The stairs ended in a small, well-lighted room, with several passageways leading out of it. They entered one of these, and after walking a short distance, came to a long, steep incline, the floor of which shone like polished glass.

“Hold on!” cried Harry in alarm; “that’s too steep and slippery to walk on. It looks like glass.”

“It is glass,” said the elf, “and we are going to slide down. You needn’t be afraid. It’s safe enough, and I’ll go in front.”

He sat down on the brow of the hill, and continued: “You sit down behind me and stick your feet on each side of me, and I’ll steer you straight. All ready? Well, here goes! Hold on to my hat!”

Whiz! away they went, and in about ten seconds reached the bottom, where a short, level space with a gentle rise at the end of it brought them to a gradual standstill.

“Glorious!” exclaimed Harry, springing to his feet. “Beats coasting all hollow! Let’s go back and try it again.”

“No, we must hasten on,” replied the elf; “the King holds a reception this afternoon, and no one is permitted to be absent.”

They hurried along the passage and presently came to a door, before which stood two tall elves, each one armed with a long spear. Harry’s elf whispered a word to these guards, and they instantly opened the door.

On they trotted; that is, the elf trotted, but Harry simply walked at a good pace, through several more passageways, until finally they reached another door, guarded like the first, through which they were admitted to the Grand Royal Reception Hall.

It was a room of immense size, brilliantly lighted by what seemed to be strings of precious stones festooned from the lofty ceiling. At the further end, on a raised dais, was the King, seated upon a throne of gold, with his royal body-guard of five hundred picked soldiers stationed near him. On a lower platform at the right of the King were seated a few persons, who, Harry’s elf informed him, were members of the royal family.

The hall was otherwise quite vacant, as the reception was just beginning, so they stood at one side and watched the elves coming in.

“There is my old master, the Lord of the Safety-Pin,” said the elf to Harry, as a surly-looking elf entered, whose clothes were fastened with numerous safety-pins. “See him scowl at us; he knows you are my master now. Those elves behind him are his knights. Each knight has two esquires and twelve retainers; any retainer who finds a good safety-pin becomes an esquire, and if he finds another he is made a knight; but he can’t become a lord until he has found enough to pin all his clothes together. There is only one lord of that order, because you mortals don’t lose many good safety-pins, and a broken one doesn’t count.

“Those two fellows coming now are Knights of the Breast-Pin. Each of them found one breast-pin, and the King made them knights. They are the only members of their order.

“Here come the Black-Pins. There are six lords, seventy-two knights, a hundred and forty-four esquires, and I don’t know how many retainers. They are rather a common lot,” he added contemptuously.

After the Black-Pins had passed, there entered a pompous elf with a large hat-pin hanging like a sword from his belt. At sight of him Harry’s elf bowed very low.

“Who is that?” asked Harry.

“One of the Hat-Pins,” replied the elf in a whisper; “belongs to the royal family, you know. The King’s sceptre is a gold-headed hat-pin, and any one who finds a hat-pin is made a member of the royal family.”

Just then a messenger summoned them to appear before the King.

“There is one rule you must bear in mind, while you are in this hall,” said the elf to Harry, as they followed the messenger; “no one is permitted to turn his back to the King.”

Half-way down the hall they came to the Lord of the Safety-Pin, who looked so ugly and hateful that Harry could not help smiling. Just after they passed him, Hairy felt a sharp pin-prick in his leg, and turning about hastily, discovered that it had been inflicted by the Lord of the Safety-Pin himself.

“Ha! ha!” cried that individual, with a malicious grin, “you have turned your back on the King!”

The King spoke a few words to his body-guard, and instantly a large number of them started towards Harry.

“Quick! you must escape!” cried the elf whose hat he possessed. “Follow me.”

Harry was inclined to stand his ground, but on second thoughts it seemed wiser to run, so he followed his little friend through a side doorway and on through many corridors and up numerous flights of stairs until they arrived at the chamber where they had first entered. The elf ran up the steps, and taking a pin from his coat inserted it in a small hole in the rock overhead, and said:

The door in the rock opened, and they stepped out into the open air.

“We’re safe now,” said the elf, and he slammed the door shut, just as the foremost of the pursuing soldiers began to mount the stairs. “Now, please give me my hat!” he added imploringly.

“Not yet,” said Harry. “You must go home with me; I’m not going to walk the streets bareheaded and visible.”

When they reached the house Harry bade the elf wait a minute, and removing the elfin hat from his head, he went up to his mother’s room, and took an old hat-pin from a closet. Stopping on his way back at the sitting-room door, he obtained his mother’s permission to keep it, and then ran out to the elf.

“You have been a good servant,” said he, “and here is your reward.”

The elf’s little black eyes sparkled with pleasure as he took it, and he drew himself up proudly, saying: “Now I shall become a member of the royal family. And here,” he continued, drawing a pin from his coat, and handing it to Harry, “is a token of my gratitude. If you ever want to see me, go to that rock in the Park; in the centre of the top you will find a small hole; stick this pin in the hole, and while you press upon it thrice, repeat these words:

“Thank you,” said Harry. “Good-by, little chap. Here’s your hat,” and he tossed it to the elf, who instantly disappeared.

“Well,” thought Harry, as he entered the house, “I’ve certainly found out where the pins go.”