noon
`` Just as you please . '' Leo felt a little pressure forcing down his eyelids , and the pouring of a drop of cool liquid on each . When he opened his eyes again there stood before him the quaintest , queerest being he had ever beheld . Leo had heard of kobolds and gnomes and elves , but in all his wanderings over the Lazybones estate in the brightness of noon , the dewy dawn , or dusky eve , or later when the moon bathed every shrub in silver , he had never so much as caught a glimpse of fairy folk . Here , however , was a real elf -- a most peculiar person . He was extremely small , thin , and wiry , about two and a half inches high , and his costume a cross between that of a student or professor and that of a miner , for on his bushy head was a miner 's cap with a lantern , and on his back was a student 's gown , while his thin legs were incased in black silk stockings , and his feet in rough hobnailed boots . Slung over one shoulder was a leather bag , and in his hand was a curious sort of a tool .