She is talking fairy . The reason mothers and nurses know what her remarks mean , before other people know , as that `` Guch '' means `` Give it to me at once , '' while `` Wa '' is `` Why do you wear such a funny hat ? '' is because , mixing so much with babies , they have picked up a little of the fairy language . Of late David has been thinking back hard about the fairy tongue , with his hands clutching his temples , and he has remembered a number of their phrases which I shall tell you some day if I do n't forget . He had heard them in the days when he was a thrush , and though I suggested to him that perhaps it is really bird language he is remembering , he says not , for these phrases are about fun and adventures , and the birds talked of nothing but nest-building . He distinctly remembers that the birds used to go from spot to spot like ladies at shop-windows , looking at the different nests and saying , `` Not my colour , my dear , '' and `` How would that do with a soft lining ? '' and `` But will it wear ? '' and `` What hideous trimming ! '' and so on . The fairies are exquisite dancers , and that is why one of the first things the baby does is to sign to you to dance to him and then to cry when you do it . They hold their great balls in the open air , in what is called a fairy-ring . For weeks afterward you can see the ring on the grass . It is not there when they begin , but they make it by waltzing round and round . Sometimes you will find mushrooms inside the ring , and these are fairy chairs that the servants have forgotten to clear away . The chairs and the rings are the only tell-tale marks these little people leave behind them , and they would remove even these were they not so fond of dancing that they toe it till the very moment of the opening of the gates . David and I once found a fairy-ring quite warm . But there is also a way of finding out about the ball before it takes place . You know the boards which tell at what time the Gardens are to close to-day . Well , these tricky fairies sometimes slyly change the board on a ball night , so that it says the Gardens are to close at six-thirty for instance , instead of at seven . This enables them to get begun half an hour earlier .
If on such a night we could remain behind in the XXXXX , as the famous Maimie Mannering did , we might see delicious sights , hundreds of lovely fairies hastening to the ball , the married ones wearing their wedding-rings round their waists , the gentlemen , all in uniform , holding up the ladies ' trains , and linkmen running in front carrying winter cherries , which are the fairy-lanterns , the cloakroom where they put on their silver slippers and get a ticket for their wraps , the flowers streaming up from the Baby Walk to look on , and always welcome because they can lend a pin , the supper-table , with Queen Mab at the head of it , and behind her chair the Lord Chamberlain , who carries a dandelion on which he blows when Her Majesty wants to know the time .
David Gardens Guch Wa days first nest-building night shop-windows weeks