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 Gardens , 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 . The table-cloth varies according to the seasons , and in May it is made of chestnut-blossom . The way the fairy-servants do is this : The men , scores of them , climb up the trees and shake the branches , and the blossom falls like snow . Then the lady servants sweep it together by whisking their skirts until it is exactly like a table-cloth , and that is how they get their table-cloth . They have real glasses and real wine of three kinds , namely , blackthorn wine , berberris wine , and cowslip wine , and the Queen pours out , but the bottles are so heavy that she just pretends to pour out . There is bread and butter to begin with , of the size of a threepenny bit ; and cakes to end with , and they are so small that they have no crumbs . The fairies sit round on mushrooms , and at first they are very well-behaved and always cough off the table , and so on , but after a bit they are not so well-behaved and stick their fingers into the butter , which is got from the roots of old trees , and the really horrid ones crawl over the table-cloth chasing sugar or other delicacies with their tongues . When the Queen sees them doing this she signs to the servants to wash up and put away , and then everybody adjourns to the dance , the Queen walking in front while the Lord Chamberlain walks behind her , carrying two little pots , one of which contains the juice of wall-flower and the other the juice of Solomon 's Seals .
Wall-flower juice is good for reviving dancers who fall to the ground in a fit , and XXXXX 's Seals juice is for bruises .
Chamberlain Gardens Mab Solomon chestnut-blossom crumbs night table-cloth waists weeks