too often, and he's got stuck some time in history and can't get back."
"And we can't do anything. We can't get to him," said Elfrida. "Oh! if only we'd got the old white magic and the Mouldiwarp to help us, we could find out what's become of him.
Perhaps he has fallen down a disused mine,' Edred suggested, "and is lying panting for water, and his faithful dog has jumped down after him and broken all its dear legs."
Elfrida melted to tears at this desperate picture, melted to a speechless extent.
"We can't do anything," said Edred again; "don't snivel like that, for goodness' sake, Elfrida. This is a man's job. Dry up. I can't think, with you blubbing like that."
"I'm not," said Elfrida untruly, and sniffed with some intensity.
"If you could make up some poetry now," Edred went on, "would that be any good?"
"Not without the dresses," she sniffed. "You know we always had dresses for our magic, or nearly always; and they have to be dead and gone people's dresses, and you'll only go to the dead and gone people's time when the dresses were worn. Oh! dear Dickie, and if he's really down a mine, or things like that, what's the good of anything?"
"I'm going to try, anyway," said Edred, "at least you must too. Because I can't make poetry."
"No more can I when I'm as unhappy as this.
