They usually pretend to be flowers , because the court sits in the Fairies ' Basin , and there are so many flowers there , and all along the Baby Walk , that a flower is the thing least likely to attract attention . They dress exactly like flowers , and change with the seasons , putting on white when lilies are in and blue for blue-bells , and so on . They like crocus and hyacinth time best of all , as they are partial to a bit of colour , but tulips -LRB- except white ones , which are the fairy-cradles -RRB- they consider garish , and they sometimes put off dressing like tulips for days , so that the beginning of the tulip weeks is almost the best time to catch them . When they think you are not looking they skip along pretty lively , but if you look and they fear there is no time to hide , they stand quite still , pretending to be flowers . Then , after you have passed without knowing that they were fairies , they rush home and tell their mothers they have had such an adventure . The Fairy Basin , you remember , is all covered with ground-ivy -LRB- from which they make their castor-oil -RRB- , with flowers growing in it here and there . Most of them really are flowers , but some of them are fairies . You never can be sure of them , but a good plan is to walk by looking the other way , and then turn round sharply . Another good plan , which David and I sometimes follow , is to stare them down . After a long time they ca n't help winking , and then you know for certain that they are fairies . There are also numbers of them along the Baby Walk , which is a famous gentle place , as spots frequented by fairies are called . Once twenty-four of them had an extraordinary adventure . They were a girls ' school out for a walk with the governess , and all wearing hyacinth gowns , when she suddenly put her finger to her mouth , and then they all stood still on an empty bed and pretended to be hyacinths . Unfortunately , what the governess had heard was two gardeners coming to plant new flowers in that very bed . They were wheeling a handcart with flowers in it , and were quite surprised to find the bed occupied . `` Pity to lift them hyacinths , '' said the one man . `` Duke 's orders , '' replied the other , and , having emptied the cart , they dug up the boarding-school and put the poor , terrified things in it in five rows . Of course , neither the governess nor the girls dare let on that they were fairies , so they were carted far away to a potting-shed , out of which they escaped in the night without their shoes , but there was a great row about it among the parents , and the school was ruined . As for their houses , it is no use looking for them , because they are the exact opposite of our houses . You can see our houses by day but you ca n't see them by dark .
Well , you can see their houses by dark , but you ca n't see them by day , for they are the colour of XXXXX , and I never heard of anyone yet who could see night in the daytime .
David Duke blue-bells castor-oil colour days ground-ivy handcart hyacinth night