The door is wide open and an old white cow stands in the garden patch chewing weeds In front of the cottage is the kind of tree whose leaves look shivery when the wind blows It is called a shivery tree I climb it and hide in the branches Even with my bent arm no one in the forest climbs as well as I do A people comes out A man-people He is tallish and oldish and baldish I see that he has some big nails in one hand and a hammer in the other I shrink back afraid A nail would burn me Anything made of iron would burn me The man-people climbs a ladder and bangs the nails into the roof knock knock knock He’s fixing the house He thinks he can live here In our forest 4
Badness I cry This forest belongs to the fairies You cannot stay The man-people is so surprised he nearly falls off the ladder Who’s there he says scanning the trees Let me see you I laugh my wickedest laugh You don’t want that A people like you would scream and run away if you saw my face and your hair would turn white as bone forever for I am Wicked Nix the foulest of the fairies Oh he says Leave at once But The man-people climbs down the ladder and squints up into the shivery tree But it’s my home you know This makes me angry I make my voice low like the growl of a bear I warn you If you don’t leave I will put a curse upon your garden so that nothing grows but 6
thorns I will put a spell upon your hearth so that your fire always smokes I will turn your well water into skunk spit and and frog pee I will give your cow wings and she will fly to the moon I can see he is afraid now I am sure he is about to beg my fairy pardon I am sure he is about to leave and never come back I am very surprised when he says Do your worst Wicked Nix foulest of the fairies This cottage is mine and I will never leave 7
