Stephanotis was peering closely at the sleeping figure of Harold. 'He certainly has changed since I last saw him, he was quite a handsome boy - full of beans and happy, hard to see any trace of that now he looks so grumpy.' Hortensia was sitting by Harold's head stroking, it has to be said, his rather straggly hair, 'poor boy, whatever has happened to him?' Aunt Mildred made a loud snorting noise 'No use getting sentimental Hortensia, he is up to no good and is letting his sense of lack overwhelm his natural good sense! Wants to destroy our forest does he and sell the trees for timber - poor boy indeed'.
Archibold was thinking, he was wondering if Harold remembered his days as a boy when he had run free in the forest. How to remind him of those days was the tricky question that was facing them. Suddenly Baby Harriet slipped out of Hortensia's lap and crawled up to Harold's face. Gently she started playing with his face, trying to make him look like he was smiling by pushing up the sides of his mouth. 'Careful Harriet' said Hortensia 'I am not sure he even remembers how to smile'. Archibold leapt up with excitement, now he knew what to do, instead of thinking about how sad and bad Harold was, why didn't they think of how to make him laugh?
The gnomes rallied round, it has to be said that Aunt Mildred was still feeling a bit cross, but mostly the gnomes were in high spirits at the idea of putting on a entertainment for Harold. The aim was to make him laugh when he woke up and to remind him of how much fun he could have in the forest, surely then he would have second thoughts about destroying their home. As Archibold said, he used to be happy when he was with them, surely they just had to remind him of what a wonderful place the forest could be?
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