Now listen very carefully as I pass on what the Great Gnome has allowed me to tell you. Although I am 275 years old, I am not really old at all. My parents and even my grandparents are still alive. I am only 15 cm tall, but my cap makes me look much taller. I wear a red one so that my friends the birds don't mistake me for a mouse as I scurry through the forest after nightfall.
Male gnomes let their beards grow and grow.
We only ever trim them for special occasions like weddings, visits from relatives or before setting out on long journeys. We gnomes are small and light and can move through the woodlands remarkably quickly, jumping over obstacles with the greatest of ease. The animals are our neighbors and our neighborhood is the world. So look around you carefully. If one day you notice that a ball left in the garden has moved or that a broken lamp is now mysteriously working, you can be sure there is a gnome about.