In a spruce tree across the street three small men were sitting on a branch having breakfast, while in the house next to it three little girls were checking their back packs before leaving for school. The children had spent the night together reading books with flashlights after their mother had said goodnight and turned out the lights.

The small men were very small indeed, the size of cats. Their names were Morris, Frank and Stanley. Nobody but Cinderella knew about them and they liked it that way. They had never learned to read so they enjoyed hearing the bedtime stories and lullabies the children’s mother sang every night.

Up rolled the school bus and the children climbed aboard. Elsa and Freda were sisters and Katy lived down the street and had stayed over because there was no food in her house. Each girl had a sandwich and a treat in her back pack. Morris, Frank and Stanley had had Purslane salad and boiled starling eggs for breakfast but they had never had a treat. As the girls settled into their seats Morris, Frank and Stanley set out for the grain elevator and feed store where there was always something interesting going on.