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FAIRIES I HAVE MET

"PLEASE," SHE SAID, "I WANT TO BE A NIGHTINGALE"

FAIRIES

I HAVE ME r

BY MRS. RODOLPH STAJFELL

ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BT

EDMUND D ULAC

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

NEW YORK AND LONDON

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DEDICATION

BEFORE Penelope could toddle she lived far away
among the oleanders. The sunbeams who
came down to see the oleanders saw Penelope
too. She sat on the grass and played with
them, and they loved her very much.
One day the sunbeams were sad.

"Penelope is going to England," they said to each
other.

" I am going to England with her," said Sunbeam
the First.

" How ? " asked the others.

" I shall hide in her hair," said Sunbeam the First.
" Then," said Sunbeam the Second, " I shall go too.
" I shall hide behind her eyelashes."

"And I," said Sunbeam the Third, "shall hide in her
heart."

So Penelope went to England, with one sunbeam in
her hair, and one in her eyes, and one in her heart.

When she was old enough to talk she spoke to the
sunbeams.

" Shall you always stay in my hair } " she asked Sun-
beam the First.

DEDICATION

" That is more than I can say," he answered. " Per-
haps when you are old I shall be obliged to go away."

Then Penelope asked Sunbeam the Second —

" Shall you always stay in my eyes ? "

" I hope so," said Sunbeam the Second ; " but perhaps
if you are unhappy I shall be obliged to go away."

Then the corners of Penelope's mouth began to droop
a little.

"Dear Sunbeam," she said to Sunbeam the Third,
" shall you be always in my heart ? "

" Yes, if you keep me there," said Sunbeam the Third.

" How can I keep you there } " asked Penelope.

" You must love the fairies," said the sunbeam, " and
understand them when they speak to you. If you love
the fairies even when you are old, I shall stay in your
heart always."

These stories have been written for Penelope, so that
she may love the fairies, and keep the sunbeam always
in her heart.

CONTENTS

PAGE

The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird . . .13

The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy, and how they

quarrelled 21

Princess Orchid's Party 31

The Cloud that had no Lining 41

The Fairies who changed Places 51

The Making of the Opal 59

The Big Spider's Diamonds 69

A Little Girl in a Book 77

The Fairy who was looking for a Home ... 85

The Box of Dreams 95

The Fairy who had only One Wing .... 103

The Little Boy from Town in

ILLUSTRATIONS

The Bird of Shadows and the Sun-Bird

"Please," she said, "I want to be a nightingale" Frontispiece

TO FACZ PAGi

The Sea-Fairy and the Land-Fairy

He held out the little shell in the beam of coloured light . 24

Princess Orchid's Party

She smiled at him very graciously when he was introduced
to her 36

The Cloud that had no Lining

And because the silver of the moonshine-fairies is very
light he was able to carry a great deal of it . . . 46

The Fairies who changed Places

Drop-of-Crystal was too busy to speak . . . '54

The Making of the Opal

Of course the Dear Princess .... wore the great opal

on the day that she was married . ... 68

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

TO FACE PAGE

The Big Spider's Diamonds

The web and the diamonds and the Big Spider himself all

fell to the ground ....... 74

A Little Girl in a Book

The other people in the book looked at her in surprise . 82

THE BIRD OF SHADOWS
AND THE SUN.BIRD

THE BIRD OF SHADOWS
AND THE SUN-BIRD

11TTLE Agatha lived in the days when castles were
as common in the land as cottages are now,
J and when there were plenty of magicians always
ready to help people out of difficulties.

One of the castles was Agatha's home. It stood on
a hill and was surrounded by a dark wood. Agatha was a
lonely little girl : she had no sisters or brothers to play
with. She used to stand at the narrow window in the
castle tower and look out into the wood, and long to run
about with other little girls. If you had seen her you
would have thought her a very funny figure in her long
gown reaching nearly to the ground, and a close cap over
her curls.

In the evening Agatha could see very little when she
stood at the window, but still she stood there and looked
at the dark wood. It was then that the nightingale, the
Bird of Shadows, sang to her ; and this was what she liked
better than anything else. She thought the nightingale's
voice was lovely to hear, and she wondered why it was
so sad.

Evening after evening the lonely little girl looked out
through the tower window listening to the nightingale,
till she felt that he was her friend. Sometimes she spoke
to him.

" How much I should like to fly out of the window
and be a nightingale too ! " she said. " Then we would

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

play together in the wood, and I should have a voice like
yours — ever so sweet and ever so sad."

Sometimes she tried to sing, but she found her voice
was not in the least like the nightingale's.

Every day she became more anxious to be a nightingale,
until at last she thought about it always, and yet seemed
no nearer to her wish. She hoped sometimes that her
curls might turn into feathers ; but after several weeks
of wishing she saw that the curls were still made of yellow
hair. She began to be afraid she would never be anything
but a little girl.

One day she heard some of the maids talking together.
They were speaking of the Wise Man, the Magician, who
lived in the dark cave on the side of the hill, and could do
the most wonderful things. In fact, they said, there was
hardly anything he couldn't do ; you had only to tell him
what you wanted most and he could manage it for you.

"Perhaps he could turn me into a nightingale," thought
Agatha. " I'll go and ask him, anyway."

So while the maids were still talking she slipped out of
the castle, and through the wood, and down the hill, till
she came to the dark cave. Her long frock caught on the
brambles as she went, and her hands were a good deal
scratched, and once she tripped and fell. But of course
she did not mind anything of that kind, because she was
thinking all the time about the nightingale.

Agatha walked into the cave without knocking, and
found the Magician at home. I dare say you know that all
good Magicians have kind faces and long white beards.
This one was a good Magician, so he had a kind face and

THEBIRD OFSHADOWSAND THE SUN-BIRD

a long white beard. Agatha was not in the least afraid of
him. She told him at once why she had come.

" Please," she said, " I want to be a nightingale."

"A nightingale, my dear?" said the Wise Man.
*' That is a very strange thing for you to want to be !
Don't you know that the nightingale is the Bird of
Shadows, who sings by night and is very sad } "

"I shouldn't mind that a bit," said Agatha, "if I could
only fly about and sing with a beautiful voice."

" Well, then," said the Wise Man, " if you don't mind
being sad, this is what you must do. Every day you must
come here to see me, and each time you must bring me
one of the pearls from your necklace."

Agatha clasped her hands tightly round her neck, as if
to save her pearls. She wore them in a chain, and the
chain was so long that it passed twice round her neck and
then fell in a loop that reached nearly to her waist.

" Oh, must it be my pearls ? " she asked eagerly.
*' Would nothing else do instead .? I have some very nice
things at home — really nice things. I have some lovely
toys, and a gold chain, and a pony, and — oh, lots of things.
Wouldn't you like some of those ? "

" No," said the Wise Man, " I must have the pearls if
you want to fly about and sing with a beautiful voice.
Nothing else will do. For every pearl you bring me I
will give you a feather from the nightingale, the Bird of
Shadows."

Agatha went home slowly, still clasping her pearls
tightly in her hands. She liked them oetter than anything
she had. She liked to watch the soft lights and shades on

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

them, and to think of the wonderful sea they came from.
She did not feel sure that it was worth while to give them
up, even for the sake of being a bird and learning to sing.

But in the evening, when she stood by the tower
window as usual, and listened to the nightingale, she had
no longer any doubts as to what she should do. To be
able to sing like the nightingale was more important than
anything else, she felt. And besides, if she were going
to be turned into a bird, the pearls would not be of much
use to her in any case. She was pretty sure that night-
ingales never wore pearl necklaces.

The next day she slipped one of the pearls off her
chain, and then she ran out of the castle and through the
wood and down the hill, till she came to the dark cave.

The Wise man smiled when he saw her.

" Here is " she began, and then she could say no

more, because of the lump in her throat.

The Wise Man looked rather sorry for her, but he took
the pearl without speaking. Then he gave her the feather
he had promised her, and she went away again. As she
climbed the hill and ran back through the wood to the
castle, she tried to feel glad that she had the feather instead
of the pearl.

For a long, long time the same thing happened every
day. Every day Agatha slipped a pearl off her chain, and
then ran out of the castle and through the wood and down
the hill, till she came to the dark cave ; and every day she
brought home a little feather instead of her pearl.

The long loop of the chain grew shorter and shorter.
The time came when it was not a long loop at all, but fitted

THE BIRD OF SHADOWS AND THE SUN-BIRD

closely round Agatha's neck as the other loops did. By-
and-by the time came when the chain would only pass
twice round her throat ; then the time came when it would
only go round her throat once ; then it grew too short
to reach round her throat at all, and she was obliged to
turn it into a bracelet. Then it became too short for
her wrist, and she made it into a ring. And all the time
her store of feathers was growing larger and larger, till it
seemed to her that there were enough to make at least
ten nightingales ; but this was because she did not know
how many feathers a nightingale likes to have. When
there were only two pearls left, the Wise Man said to her —

" When you bring me the last pearl you must bring me
the feathers too ; and after that you will be able to sing
with a beautiful voice and to fly wherever you like."

So when Agatha left the gloomy old castle for the last
time she was not able to run through the wood, because
she was carrying a big bag of feathers as well as the pearl.

She was feeling very much excited when she gave
the bag of feathers to the Wise Man.

He put the last pearl carefully away with the others ;
and then he took the bag of feathers and emptied it over
Agatha's head. As he did so he said some of the strange
long words that Wise Men use.

And then

Agatha was there no longer. There was nothing to be
seen of her except a little heap of yellow curls, which the
Wise Man kept to give to the next person who asked
him for gold.

But out of the cave there flew a happy bird. It flew

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

far, far up into the sky, singing with a beautiful voice.
It flew higher up into the sky than any nightingale ever
flew.

For the Wise Man had done more than he had pro-
mised. The bird's beautiful voice was not the voice of the
nightingale, the Bird of Shadows ; but the voice of the
lark, the Sun-Bird, who is never sad.

THE SEA-FAIRT AND THE

LAND.FAIRT, AND HO IF

THEY QUARRELLED

rHE SEA-FAIRY AND THE
LAND-FAIRT, AND HOW
THET HUARRELLED

THE sea-fairy's name was Laughing Sapphire, and
he lived in a nautilus-shell : the land-fairy
was called Sweet-of-the-Mountain, and his
home was a tuft of heather. One day Sweet-
of-the-Mountain went for a stroll on the sea-shore, and
there he met Laughing Sapphire, just at the edge of the
ripples. It was then that the quarrel began.

*' I am really sorry for you," said the sea- fairy. " It
must be very unpleasant to live up on that cliff. It is
so dangerous too. You might be blown down at any
moment ! "

" Ha-ha, how very amusing ! " laughed the land-fairy.
" Unpleasant, did you say ? Dangerous ? Not at all,
not at all. Now, your life is something too horrible to
think of. I am glad it is not my fate to wander for ever
on the sea. And as for danger — well, every one knows
that the sea is full of dangers."

" I never heard such nonsense," said Laughing Sapphire
indignantly. '* The sea is perfectly safe if you know how
to manage your shell."

" But think of the discomfort of it," said Sweet-of-the-
Mountain. " You never have any peace."

"Andjo« never have any change," answered Laughing
Sapphire.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

"There's not much change in always looking at the
sea — a great dull stretch of water ! "

" Dull ! " cried Laughing Sapphire angrily. " Dull,
did you say ? Not half so dull as being mewed up on
a rock ! "

"Why," said Sweet-of-the- Mountain, "you've no
flowers, and no bees, and no "

"And you," interrupted Laughing Sapphire, "have
no glittering spray, and no forests of seaweed, and no
creamy foam."

"You've no heather," said the land-fairy, as if that
settled the matter.

" As for you," cried the sea-fairy, " I can't think of
anything you have got ! So there ! "

They went on quarrelling in this way for some time,
getting more and more angry. At last they agreed upon
a very good way of settling the dispute. And this was
their plan. Each of them was to go away for a certain
length of time. On a particular day they were to meet
again on the shore, at the edge of the ripples. Laughing
Sapphire was to bring with him three treasures of the sea ;
and Sweet-of-the-Mountain was to bring three treasures of
the land. The fairy whose treasures were the best would
be the winner in the quarrel.

" But who will decide which are the best treasures .^ "
asked the land-fairy.

" My friend the sea-anemone lives near here," said
Laughing Sapphire. " As he is partly on land and partly
in the sea, he will be able to judge fairly between us.
He shall decide."

HE HELD OUT THE LITTLE SHELL IN THE BEAM OF COLOURED LIGHT

THE SEA-FAIRY AND THE LAND-FAIRY

Then the sea-fairy sailed away in his nautilus-shell, and
the land-fairy flew home to the heather on the cliff.

Hardly had Laughing Sapphire left the shore when
he saw a huge curling wave rolling towards him. The
hollow of the wave was like a great green cavern, lit
up with magic light ; the top of it was sparkling spray.
A sunbeam was shining straight down through the spray,
and gleaming with every colour you can think of, so that
it seemed as if a piece of rainbow had fallen from the sky.

The fairy laughed happily, and steered right into the
hollow of the wave, for he knew that his nautilus-boat
was safe. In his hand was a little shell. As his boat
rode smoothly over the crest of the wave and through
the rainbow, he held out the little shell in the beam of
coloured light. There was a wonderful change in the
shell after it had passed through the rainbow ; it was lined
with mother-o'-pearl !

The fairy laughed again for joy when he saw the
rainbow colours of the little shell.

" They've nothing like that on shore ! " he said.

Then the nautilus-boat sailed on and on across the sea.

The next thing that Laughing Sapphire found was a
glowing piece of red seaweed. As he pulled it, dripping,
out of the sea, it looked like a bit of broad crimson ribbon ;
except that no ribbon ever had so much colour and so
much light in it. It was so transparent that you could
see the sunlight through it, and yet it was as strong as
a rope.

As the fairy coiled It round and round he smiled.

"That should please them, I think," he muttered.

25 B

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

The third thing that Laughing Sapphire found was the
best of all. To find it he was obliged to leave his nautilus-
boat and dive down to the bottom of the sea. I must
not tell you now of all the wonders he saw there, for it
would take me too long, and it would be very difficult
for me to stop. But when he came to the surface again
he was clasping a splendid pearl tightly in his hand.

" If this doesn't persuade them," he said, chuckling,
" that the sea is the best place in the world, nothing will ! "

Meanwhile the land-fairy had been busy too.

First he flew to a beautiful garden, full of roses and
verbena and everything sweet. It was a garden he often
visited, for many of the flower-fairies there were friends
of his. So he knew exactly where to find the sweetest
lilies. There were great clumps of them — tall, white lilies
with drooping heads and hearts of gold. Sweet-of-the
Mountain crept into one of them, and came out with a
big, heavy drop of honey. The scent of it was so strong
that all the fairies in the garden sniffed joyfully. Then
Sweet-of-the-Mountain flew over the wall, and away and
away till he came to a wood.

In the wood there was perfect silence. If you had
walked there your footsteps would have made no sound,
for the ground was soft and springy with moss. There
was moss everywhere : moss on the tree-stems and on the
stones, and carpets and cushions of moss on the ground.
The fairy picked a piece of it — a piece like a soft green
feather — and flew ofi^ with it out of the wood.

Then he went back to his own hills, where the heather
grew right up to the edge of the cliff*; for he knew that

THE SEA-FAIRY AND THE LAND-FAIRY

the best thing of all was to be found there. He saw the
hills far away, purple and blue, with here and there a
streak of crimson where the sun was shining on the heather.
As he came nearer and nearer he grew happier and happier,
for a fairy is always happiest in his own country. He
picked a sprig from his own tuft of heather ; and then
he flew down to the shore to meet the sea-fairy at the
edge of the ripples.

He found the nautilus-boat lying on the sand, and
Laughing Sapphire sitting on a rock talking to the sea-
anemone. The fairies nodded to each other.

" This," said Laughing Sapphire to the sea-anemone,
" is the fairy I was speaking of. He declares that it is
better to live on land than on the sea. Of course I know
better than that ! So we have each brought three treasures
to show you, that you may decide which of us is right."

The sea-anemone answered in a very sleepy, drawling
voice : for when you spend all your life fastened to the
same rock your mind moves rather slowly.

" Very well," he said, " go on."

Then Laughing Sapphire showed them his mother-o'-
pearl shell.

"This shell," he said, "is lined with a bit of rainbow."

The sea-anemone waved all his arms about wildly to
show that he was pleased.

"And this," said Laughing Sapphire, unrolling the
crimson seaweed, " is a bit of the ribbon that mermaids use
for tying their hair."

" Beautiful ! " murmured the land-fairy.

" And this," went on the sea-fairy, showing them the

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

pearl, " is one of the lanterns that the moonlight-fairies use
when they dance on the sea."

" Beautiful — beautiful ! " said the sea-anemone and the
land-fairy together.

Then Laughing Sapphire turned to the land-fairy with an
air of triumph.

" Let us see your treasures now," he said a little
contemptuously.

Sweet-of-the-Mountain held out a flower-cup with the
drop of honey in it.

It was so sweet that the sea-fairy could not help
exclaiming : " Oh, how delicious ! "

" That," said the land-fairy, " is the sweetness of the
garden."

Then he showed them the little green feather of moss.

" That," he said, " is the quietness of the woods."

Then he threw down the sprig of heather.

" That," he said, smiling, " is the glory of the hills."

The two fairies looked at each other silently. Each felt
certain that his own treasures were the best.

The sea-anemone's arms were all waving furiously. He
was very much excited, because he knew that the time had
come for him to decide which of the two fairies had
brought the most beautiful things ; and as I told you
before, he was not very quick in making up his mind.

"Well .'' " said Laughing Sapphire impatiently. "What
do you think } Is it best to live on the sea or on
the land } "

" I think," said the sea-anemone very slowly, " that the
sea is the best place for a sea-fairy."

THE SEA-FAIRY AND THE LAND-FAIRY

" Yes, yes," said the sea-fairy, " of course it is ! "

" But then, you know," the sea-anemone went on,
" I can't help thinking that the land is the best place for a
land-fairy."

Then he drew in all his arms and became a little knob
of red jelly.

" It is possible," said Sweet-of-the-Mountain thought-
fully, " that there is some sense in what he says. And
yet" — he sniffed happily at his cup of honey — "and yet
I don't believe you have anything at sea as sweet as this."

" It is certainly a very nice scent," agreed Laughing
Sapphire, "but I do think it would be improved by a
little salt."

PRINCESS ORCHID'S PARTY

A FAIRY whose name was Hedgeflower once
lived in a wild rose at the corner of a field.
One day he went out to search for adventures,
for most fairies have a great wish for adventures.
He wandered on for a long time, sometimes walking
and sometimes flying, and sometimes stoppmg to talk to
friends, for the wild-rose-fairies have a great many friends.
He crossed several fields in this way, and then he came to
a high hedge. He was just thinking of going home when
he heard a great buzzing of voices on the other side of the
hedge, and as the voices were fairy-voices he was interested
at once. Perhaps, he thought, he would find the adventure
he was looking for on the other side of the hedge. So he
spread his pink-and-white wings and flew over.

It was not surprising that he had heard a great many
fairy-voices, for he found himself in a beautiful garden,
and all beautiful gardens are, as you know, full of fairies.
In this garden there were not only the sorts of fairies that
one meets every day, such as rose-fairies and lily-fairies and
the quiet little ones that live in mignonette, but there were
also all kinds of smartly dressed fairies belonging to strange
and splendid flowers. They all seemed to be getting on
very well together, for they were all talking loudly about
something that interested them very much.

As Hedgeflower dropped down into the middle of the
group he felt a little shy. But fairies are as a rule kind
and friendly, so a good many voices called out Good-morning

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

to him as he sat down under the shade of a large purple
pansy. Then a butterfly whom he had met once or twice
before came rustling up to him and began to talk.

" I like this place," said the butterfly. " One meets so
many different kinds of fairies. But don't sit there. Come
and let me introduce you to some of my friends." Then
as they moved away he lowered his voice and went on —

"Those little pansy-fairies are good little things, but
they are a bit too thoughtful for me. I find them just
a trifle dull, you know. But here is a cousin of yours ;
I must introduce you."

Hedgeflower looked round and saw that a beautiful
rose-fairy was standing near. She wore flowing robes of
two shades of pink, and her appearance was full of dignity.

" Madame La France," said the butterfly, " may I
introduce to you a cousin of your own } "

"A very distant cousin, I am afraid, Madame," said
Hedgeflower, bowing low.

Madame La France smiled kindly and asked Hedge-
flower if he had often been in the garden before. He told
her that this was his first visit.

" Then," she cried, " you must come to the party — you
must certainly come to Princess Orchid's party. She lives
over there in the glass house, and she has asked all the
fairies in the garden to a party this afternoon. We have
been talking about it all day. You must come with me ;
the Princess will be glad to see any cousin of mine."

Hedgeflower was delighted. He thought it would be
great fun to tell the fairies at home all about it : Meadow-
sweet, and that cheeky little Eyebright, and Buttercup who

PRINCESS OR emus PARTY

stared at everything one said, and all the honeysuckle-
fairies, who were such friends with the wild-rose-fairies
because their families had lived close together for so long.
Hedgeflower thought that to go to a Princess's party with
his beautiful cousin was a nicer adventure than anything
he had expected when he set out for his walk.

Meanwhile all the fairies in the garden were making
their way towards the glass house.

" You must keep close to me," said Madame La France
kindly. " The flower in which the Princess lives is some
way from the door, and you might be lost in the
crowd."

In another moment Hedgeflower found himself in a
scene of the greatest splendour. The glass house was full
of flowers, and every flower had of course its own special
fairy, and nearly all of them were magnificently dressed and
were quite difl^erent to any fairies that Hedgeflower knew.
The greatest crowd was of course round the beautiful flower
in which the Princess Orchid lived, and Hedgeflower and
his cousin found it quite difficult to get near the Princess
without crushing their wings. They were obliged to walk
so slowly that Hedgeflower had plenty of time to look
about him. He saw numbers of his cousins the rose-fairies,
and tall lily-fairies, and fern-fairies dressed all in green.
The pansy-fairies were there too, with their sad little faces
and their splendid purple-and-gold dresses. Quite close to
him there was a fuchsia-fairy, dressed in a stiff white petti-
coat with a pointed overskirt of scarlet ; and standing beside
her were several fairies whose crimson tunics were so fine
that Hedgeflower asked who they were.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

" They are the young Prince Begonias," said Madame
La France. " The Princess, being a foreigner herself, has a
great many foreign friends. The Begonias think a good
deal of themselves, but I think myself that our own family
has more reason to be proud. But come, we can speak to
the Princess now."

Princess Orchid was standing on a drooping petal of the
beautiful flower in which she lived. Her long robes of
mauve and white swept over the flower as if they were
themselves petals. Her hair was golden, and her face was
the loveliest that Hedgeflower had ever seen. She smiled
at him very graciously when he was introduced to her, and
after he had seen that smile he took no interest in anything
else that was going on. He never glanced again at any of
the fairies who had seemed to him so splendid a short time
before : he just sat down in a nice shady clump of ferns and
watched Princess Orchid. He had been to a great many
parties in his own hedge where the wild-roses grew, but he
had never seen a fairy or even a butterfly receive her guests
with so much sweetness and graciousness. He sat there
for a long time and wished it could be for ever. Then he
remembered that perhaps he would never see Princess
Orchid again, and that made him sad.

A fairy party is never dull. Fairies are full of fun and
enjoy everything very much. There was a great deal of
talking and laughing and sipping of dew flavoured with
sunshine, which is the drink fairies like instead of tea. The
fairies of the Canterbury Bells had brought their music too,
and gave a great deal of pleasure. It seemed as if the party
were going to be a great success, when unfortunately a

SHE SMILED AT HIM VERY GRACIOUSLY WHEN HE WAS INTRODUCED TO HER

PRINCESS ORCHID'S PARTY

disaster happened which was talked about for many a day
afterwards.

On the roof of the glass house, just above the Princess's
head, there was a large spider who was very busy spinning
his web. He was so busy that he did not look where he
was going, and when people forget to look where they are
going it is a very common thing for accidents to happen.
The spider came lower and lower, spinning all the time,
while Princess Orchid was talking very kindly to a shy
little violet-fairy and was not noticing anything else. Lower
and lower, nearer and nearer, came the spider.

Suddenly a shrill little voice was heard to cry out —

" Take care, Princess, take care ! " and Hedgeflower,
flying from his clump of ferns, flung himself against the
great spider. He was too late. Flop ! The spider fell
with all his weight upon the flower in which the Princess
lived !

No flower could bear the weight of such a monster, and
to the horror of all the fairies the beautiful mauve orchid
trembled and drooped, and then slowly fell to pieces, petal
by petal. The Princess spread her dainty wings and flew
safely to the ground. Then she turned and looked sadly
at the ruin of her home. It lay bruised and crushed and
shapeless on the earth, and if once a fairy's flower-home
falls to pieces it can never be put together again.

There was a great commotion in the glass house. All
the fairies flew about in a fuss, chattering angrily and trying
to find the spider who had done the mischief. But he had
quickly climbed up the rope that he had been spinning, and
was hiding behind a leaf, so he was never found.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

Now, it is a very uncommon thing to find a fairy who
is not kind and anxious to help other people, so all the
Princess's guests crowded round her and begged her to
come and stay with them. The fuchsia-fairies declared they
knew of the loveliest little fuchsia-bud which was in want
of some one to take care of it : it would really be a charity
if the Princess would live there. Prince Begonia objected
to this, because, he said, a fuchsia-bud was not a fit place for
the Princess to live in ; the right home for her was in one
of his magnificent palaces. The lily-fairies cried out that
this was all nonsense, because any one could see that the
Princess would feel more at home in a white flower than in
a red one, after living so long in the pale orchid.

While all this talking was going on the Princess did
not seem to be paying very much attention to it, though
of course she bowed and smiled and thanked the fairies
very prettily, as was only right. She looked round several
times, as if she wanted some one who was not there. At
last she said —

" Where is the little fairy with the kind face, who tried
to save my home .? "

Several fairies pushed Hedgeflower forward. He felt
and looked very shy.

The Princess smiled at him, and then she held out her
hand.

*' I will go with you," she said, " and be a wild-rose-
fairy."

Hedgeflower dropped on one knee before her.

" My home is in a common hedge," he said, " and there
are thorns round it. But there is no glass between me

PRINCESS ORCHID'S PARTY

and the open sky. I think, Princess, that a fairy should
be always under the open sky and the sunshine."

" That," said the Princess, " is exactly what I think
myself."

So Hedgeflower and the Princess spread their wings
and took each other's hands and flew away out of the
window of the glass house, and across the garden and over
the hedge. They flew on and on, across field after field,
till they came to the hedge with the wild roses.

There the Princess Orchid made her home, among the
honeysuckles and the meadowsweet. She was no longer a
princess with sweeping robes, but a quiet little wild-rose-
fairy in a pink-and-white frock. But there was no glass
between her and the sunshine.

THE CLOUD THAT
HAD NO LINING

THERE was once a cloud that had no lining.
You have often, I dare say, heard grown-up
people say that every cloud has a silver lining,
and so you will understand that a cloud with-
out a lining is a very uncommon thing.

The fairies who lived in the cloud found it very
uncomfortable, because, you see, it let the rain come
through.

" If only our cloud had a lining," they said, " the rain
would not come through, and that would be very nice
for us."

" We must really have it lined," said one.

** What with ? " asked another.

" Why, with silver, of course," said a third. " Every
one knows that a cloud ought to be lined with silver."

" But we have no silver ! "

" Then we must get some. It is ridiculous to go on
living in this state of dampness. Other fairies have com-
fortable clouds over their heads, and why should we be
always drenched ? And all for want of a simple silver
lining ! "

" Where does one find silver ? " asked one of the fairies.

"There are a good many kinds of silver," said a fairy
who had been about the world a great deal. "There is
the kind that is dug out of the earth, — but that is a
common kind of stuff, and no use for lining clouds with.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

Then there is the silver stream that you can see far below,
winding through the fields and shining white in the sun.
That is a much better kind of silver than the other. Then,
of course, moonshine makes beautiful silver : you can see
it glittering on the sea whenever the moon shines. But
I really don't know what would be the best kind of silver
to line clouds with."

" We must try them all, and see which is the best,'*
said another fairy.

They went on talking about it for some time, because
such an important matter could not be settled in a hurry.
At last it was arranged that three of them should fly away
and look for some silver to line their cloud with. The
names of the three fairies were Pearlywing, and Skybright,
and Mist-of-the-Morning.

Now, all the time that the fairies were talking. Pearly-
wing was looking down at the silver stream far below,
winding through the meadows. It was so white and
shining that he felt sure the silver of it would make a
beautiful lining for the cloud. So when he was told to
fly away and look for some silver, he lost no time in
wondering where to go. He spread his wings — the soft
grey wings that cloud-fairies have — and he flew down and
down, away from the cloud to the meadows where the
silver stream was shining. The nearer he came to it the
more it sparkled. He felt sure it must be made of the very
best silver.

But how could he carry it ? A fairy's cap is not very
large, and he had nothing else.

" I must just carry up a capful at a time, and empty

THE CLOUD THAT HAD NO LINING

it, and come back for another. 1 must go on till there
is enough silver to line the cloud with," he said to himself.

So he filled his tiny cap with the silver of the stream,
and flew up again to his cloud, carrying the cap very care-
fully for fear of spilling the silver. Then he went round
to the back of the cloud where the lining ought to have
been, and poured the silver out of his cap.

Now, as I dare say you have guessed, the silver of the
stream was really nothing but water. So when it was
poured out of the cap it fell right through the cloud, and
made the fairies on the other side much wetter than they
had ever been before ! I need not say that they were very
much annoyed. They made so much commotion, splutter-
ing and grumbling and scolding, that Pearlywing heard
them through the cloud, and went round to see what was
the matter.

" What we want," said one of them angrily, shaking the
water off his wings, " is something to keep us dry, not
something to make us wet ! "

" I am so sorry ! " said Pearlywing ; " but I thought it
was such good silver ! And now, I suppose, you don't
want any more of it."

" Certainly not ! " said all the fairies very quickly.

" It is most unfortunate," said Pearlywing. " I can't
understand it at all. The silver looked so very nice."

He was not a very clever fairy, I am afraid.

" I hope Skybright will have more sense," grumbled
the wet fairies.

Skybright meanwhile was waiting on the sea-shore,
far below the clouds. He was waiting for the moon to

FAIBIES I HAVE MET

rise above the sea. He had to wait a long time, but he
did not mind that, because there are always such nice
fairies to talk to on the sea-shore.

At last the big round moon sailed slowly up into the sky.
At the same moment a hundred thousand moonshine-fairies
rushed out across the sea towards Skybright, flying and
dancing on the water, and turning it into a sheet of silver
as they came. For the moonshine-fairies carry silver with
them wherever they fly, and scatter it as they go.

This was the moment that Skybright had been wait-
ing for.

" Please, pretty moonshine-fairies," he cried, running to
the water's edge and holding out his arms, " give me some
of your silver to line my cloud with, and keep the rain
from coming through ! "

Then the moonshine-fairies danced towards him across
the sea, with their tiny hands full of silver.

" Take our silver, little cloud-fairy," they said, " and
line your cloud with it, and dip your wings in it, and
scatter it over the earth as you fly, for everything is made
more beautiful by our silver."

Then they poured the silver out of their hands into
his, and because the silver of the moonshine-fairies is very
light he was able to carry a great deal of it. He filled the
pockets of his pretty grey coat with it, and he filled his
cap, and took a quantity of it in his hands. And he said
Good-bye to the moonshine-fairies, and flew away up to
the clouds.

When the other cloud-fairies saw the beautiful silver he
had brought with him they were delighted. They all set to

AND BECAUSE THE SILVER OF THE MOONSHINE-FAIRIES IS VERY LIGHT HE WAS
ABLE TO CARRY A GREAT DEAL OF IT

THE CLOUD THAT HAD NO LINING

work to line the cloud with it, spreading it out carefully
and making it nice and tidy at the edges. When the lining
was finished it looked lovely, and the fairies were much
pleased with it. They sat down under the cloud, feeling
quite safe from the rain.

But unfortunately their satisfaction did not last long.
Presently it began to rain. The fairies smiled and nodded
at each other, and agreed that it was very pleasant to be
safe from a wetting. Then a big heavy drop fell right
through the cloud and lining and all — and another — and
another, and soon the fairies were as wet and uncomfortable
and cross as if the cloud had never been lined. It was
really very annoying.

The truth is that the silver of the moonshine-fairies is
rather thin — altogether too thin to keep the rain out, and
of very little use for lining clouds with.

"It is really too bad ! " cried the poor cloud-fairies,
wringing the water out of their nice little grey coats.
*' What are we to do .'' Any one would have thought that
such beautiful silver would keep the rain out ! "

" Perhaps," said one of them who liked to be cheerful,
" Mist-of-the-Morning may bring us a better kind of silver
even than this."

So they decided to grumble no more till Mist-of-the-
Morning came home.

Now, when Mist-of-the-Morning started out to look for
silver he did not fly down to the earth at all.

" Every cloud but ours has a silver lining," he said to
himself ; " so the best way to find the right kind of silver
will be to ask the fairies who live in the other clouds."

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

He saw the clouds all about him, each with a bright rim
round it, which was the edge of its lining. He went to the
nearest one and spoke to the fairies that lived in it.

" Brother fairies," he said, " where can I find silver to
make my cloud a lining as beautiful as yours ? "

And the fairies answered —

" Go to the sunbeam-fairies. Their silver is the best
for lining clouds with."

Then Mist-of-the-Morning went to one cloud after
another, and asked all the fairies that lived in them the
same question. And they all answered — •

" Go to the sunbeam-fairies. Their silver is the very
best."

So Mist-of-the-Morning flew away to the nearest sun-
beam. It was crowded with fairies, who were all hard at
work, for the sunbeam-fairies have more work to do than
any others. As they worked they were laughing and
singing, for the sunbeam-fairies are always happy.

"Please, kind sunbeam-fairies," said Mist-of-the-Morn-
ing, " I want some silver to line my cloud with. It must
be the very best silver, and every one says that none but
yours is good enough."

Then all the sunbeam fairies shouted out —

" Quite right, little cloud-fairy, quite right ! It is waste
of time to line a cloud with any silver but ours. Our silver
is the very best 1 "

While they were speaking they all rushed to the end of
the sunbeam, and before Mist-of-the-Morning knew what
they were going to do, they had cut off a great piece of it.
There it lay in a shining heap ! Mist-of-the-Morning had

THE CLOUD THAT HAD NO LINING

to shade his eyes, because its silvery brightness dazzled
him.

*' Sunbeam silver ! " sang the fairies. " Sunbeam silver
is the best of all ! "

Then Mist-of-the-Morning spread his wings and flew
home, traihng the sunbeam after him. And all the fairies
in his own cloud welcomed him with shouts and singing,
because they saw at once that sunbeam silver was the best
of all.

They made their cloud a beautiful thick lining of it,
with the silver shining all round the edge. And the rain
never came through any more.

Now that I have told you this story I hope you will not
forget that it is waste of time to line a cloud with any kind
of silver except the kind that sunbeams are made of.

THE FAIRIES WHO
CHANGED PLACES

THE FAIRIES fFHO
CHANGED PLACES

THIS Story is about something that happened
long, long, and ever so long ago, before the
fairies had really settled down to their work.
There was then a little fairy called Star-
blossom, whose business it was to take care of the earliest
Spring flowers ; and there was also a fairy called Drop-of-
Crystal, whose work it was to make snowflakes. These
two fairies were great friends.

One day Starblossom had not very much to do. She
had finished sharpening the little green spikes of her flower-
leaves, and had even made ready one or two white buds.
But when she saw that Drop-of-Crystal was very busy
making heavy drops of snow, she thought to herself that
there was no need for her to be in a hurry about the Spring
flowers. They would be much more comfortable under-
ground if Drop-of-Crystal were going to fling snowflakes
all over them. So she carefully covered up her buds and
went off^ to watch the snow-fairy at work.

Drop-of-Crystal was too busy to speak. He was
making an enormous quantity of snowflakes. Starblossom
was silent for some time, but at last she asked —

" What are they all for } "

" For a snow-storm, of course," said Drop-of-Crystal
shortly.

" Are they all to be used in one storm } " asked Star-
blossom. " It will be a very big storm, I'm afraid."

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

" It will," said Drop-of-Crystal — " very big. You'd
better take care of those flowers of yours, or they'll be
hurt."

"There are not many of them above ground," Star-
blossom answered. " I saw what you were doing. But
in any case my flowers are not likely to be hurt by the
snow-fairies so much as by the frost-fairies."

Drop-of-Crystal said nothing to this, but went on
working busily.

Presently Starblossom spoke again.

" It seems to me that snowflakes are very easy to
make. Your work is really much easier than mine. It is
very difficult to make flowers nicely. One has to be so
particular about the shape of them."

" I don't agree with you at all," said Drop-of-Crystal
rather crossly. " My work is much harder than yours. I
have to make thousands and thousands of snowflakes for
the very smallest snow-storm. You can take quite a long
time arranging the shape of your flowers, but 1 have to work
in a hurry, or the storm would run short of snowflakes.
And that would be very serious."

" Not half so serious as it would be if the Spring were
to run short of flowers," said Starblossom indignantly.

" Look here," said Drop-of-Crystal, losing his temper,
" if you like my work so much I wish you'd do it ! You
can set to work and make a few thousand snowflakes while
I take a rest."

" I shall be delighted to do such easy work," said Star-
blossom ; " but of course if I make your snowflakes you
must make my flowers. That is only fair."

DROP-OF-CRYSTAL WAS TOO BUSY TO SPEAK

THE FAIRIES WHO CHANGED PLACES

" Very well," said Drop-of-Crystal, " I don't mind.
After all, work of that kind is just the same as resting."

So he flew off to the place where Starblossom's flowers
were beginning to show their spiky leaves above ground.
He had never made a flower before, and did not know how
to set about it, but he was much too proud to ask Star-
blossom how it ought to be done. So he did the best he
could by himself.

It was a long time before he had finished a flower-
bud. When the first one was done he thought it looked
rather odd.

"There is something peculiar about that flower-bud,"
he said to himself. " It is really more like a big drop of
snow than a flower 1 I suppose that comes of making
snowflakes for so long. I must try again."

So he tried again, and again, and again. But every
time the flower-bud was exactly like a big drop of snow.

" I can't help it," he said at last. " They will keep on
being like drops of snow. But, after all, there is no reason
why a flower should not be like a drop of snow. They are
dear little flowers, anyway, and 1 shall go on making them
like this."

So he went on for a long time making flowers that were
like drops of snow, and dear little flowers they were.

In the meantime Starblossom was hard at work making
snowflakes. She knew no more about making snowflakes
than Drop-of-Crystal knew about making flowers, but, like
Drop-of-Crystal, she determined to do the best she could
without asking for help. She took a long time to make
the first snowflake, because she was accustomed to finish

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

her flowers very carefully, and she liked everything she
made to be pretty. She laughed to herself as she put down
the first finished snowflake.

" That is what comes of making nothing but flowers,"
she said. " That snowflake is exactly like a flower ! "

She was quite right. The snowflake was like a delicate,
starry flower, light as air, and clear as crystal, and glistening
in the sunshine.

" I like that kind of snowflake," said Starblossom. " I
shall make some more."

So she made a great number of snowflakes, and they
were all like feathery flowers, all different in shape, but all
beautiful.

" I should like to go on making snow-flowers always,"
she said to herself.

At that moment Drop-of-Crystal flew up to her in a
great hurry.

*' Oh, do come and see my nice new flowers," he cried.
"They are quite a new kind, and they are so pretty — ^just
like drops of snow ! "

" And my drops of snow are just like flowers ! " cried
Starblossom. " And I want to go on making them always,
because they are so beautiful."

"Well then," said Drop-of-Crystal, clapping his
hands, " suppose you and I change places ! You shall
go on making snowflakes, and I'll go on making
flowers 1 "

So that was the way they settled it.

And because Drop-of-Crystal was a snow-fairy, the
flowers he made were always like drops of snow ; and

THE FAIRIES WHO CHANGED PLACES

because Starblossom was a flower-fairy, the snowflakes she
made were always like flowers.

That is the reason why, to this day, the first flowers of
Spring are like drops of snow, and the snowflakes arc like
beautiful, starry flowers. You must often have noticed it
yourself.

THE MAKING OF THE OPAL

THE opal was the last of the precious stones to be
made. And this was how it happened.
Long, long ago — so long ago that no one
had ever seen a ruby or a sapphire or an
emerald — there was a Princess who had a great many friends
among the fairies. Because they loved her they called her
the Dear Princess, and the country in which she lived was
known as the Crystal Mountain. It was the delight of the
fairies to do her bidding, to fly and fly over hill and dale to
fetch her anything she wished to have. Sometimes she
wished to have very curious things, because all the ordinary
things that Princesses like to have had been brought to her
long ago by the fairies. If she wanted things that no one
had ever heard of before, the fairies would set to work to
make them for her. One day she said —

" Oh, Fairies dear, I am going to be married. I am
going to marry the Prince of the Far Land over the Hill,
and the wedding is to be the grandest ever seen. My dress
is lovely : it was cut out of a rainbow on purpose for me,
and trimmed with the edge of a sunset cloud. But what
am I to wear in my hair ? "

Now, the Princess's hair hung over her in dark waves,
like a long cloak.

" Flowers ! " cried the fairies. " Quick — quick — let us
fly for flowers to twist in the Dear Princess's hair ! "

So they all flew away, some in one direction and some
in another, while the Dear Princess of the Crystal

FAIRTES I HAVE MET

Mountain sat and waited, with her cloud of hair hanging
round her.

Very soon she saw them flying back, some from gardens
Hnd some from orchards, and some from the hills where the
heather grew, and some from country lanes where the flowers
were very sweet, and some from hothouses where the flowers
were very rare. Wherever they came from they were all
laden with flowers. Some brought roses, red and white
and yellow ; some brought heavy white lilies ; some brought
long trails of honeysuckle. Some were carrying great
bundles of forget-me-nots ; others had strange flowers from
distant countries ; others had bunches of golden daffbdils.
They crowded round the Dear Princess, and laid the flowers
in great heaps beside her.

" Wear my roses ! " cried one. " See how the crimson
of them glows in your dark hair ! "

"Wear my daffbdils ! " cried another. '* See how they
shine like gold ! "

" Wear my lilies ! " cried a third, " for they match your
lily-face ! "

Then they all held up the flowers against the Princess's
dark hair, to see which looked the best ; red, or yellow, or
white. The Princess herself found it very hard to make
up her mind, because they were all so beautiful that she
would have liked to wear them all. First she chose one,
and then another, and then she thought that, after all, a third
would look the best.

This went on for so long that at last the flowers died.

" Ah, look," said the Princess, " the flowers are
dead ! "

THE MAKING OF THE OPAL

" Oh dear, oh dear ! " cried all the fairies together.
"The flowers are dead ! What shall we do now ? "

The Princess sat down among the dead flowers, and
thought.

" I must have something that will not die," she said at
last, " something stronger than flowers. In my dark hair I
must have something that will gleam and sparkle. I must
have colour that will not fade, a dewdrop that will not melt,
a spark of fire that will not go out."

" Dear me ! " said the fairies ; and they said no more
for some time, for they were thinking that the Dear Princess
wanted a good deal.

After a time three of them began talking together all at
once, as if a very good idea had suddenly come into their
heads.

Then these three spread their wings and flew away.
They flew far away from the Princess and her palace, far
from the other fairies, up and up to the heights of the
Crystal Mountain. Then each of them chipped ofi^ a little
piece of the rock at the top of the mountain, and each, as
he did it, laughed aloud gleefully. Then each little fairy
tucked his chip of rock under his arm ; and they all nodded
to each other, still laughing, and spread their wings again,
and flew cT in diff'erent directions.

The first of the three, with his chip of rock under his
arm, flew straight to the sea-shore. On the shore, close to
the shining blue sea, there lived a very nice mermaid who
was a great friend of the fairy's. So he flew to her with the
bit of crystal rock and said —

" Mermaid, mermaid, here is a chip from the Crystal

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

Mountain. Take it for me, and dip it into the darkest and
deepest deep of the blue sea."

So the mermaid took the crystal chip and dived down
with it into the darkest and deepest deep of the blue sea.

Now, it is well known that whatever is touched by the
deepest deep of the sea is changed by it for ever, and
becomes itself a part of the sea. And so, when the mermaid
brought the chip of crystal back to the fairy it had become
like a chip of the sea — shining and gleaming and deep,
deep blue.

And that was the first sapphire.

And when the second fairy left the Crystal Mountain
with his little bit of rock under his arm, he flew to the great
forest where the wood-pixies lived.

*' Pixies, pixies," he called to them, " here is a chip from
the Crystal Mountain. Take it for me into the darkest
and deepest deep of the green forest, and do not bring it
back to me till the green of the forest has sunk into its very
heart."

Of course you must have noticed that the wood-pixies
have the gift of making things green ; for every one knows
that in the forest where they live everything is green — the
trees and the grass and the soft moss. And the shade
under the trees is dark, dark green, and here and there
where the sun peeps through, the green is very bright. So
the pixies took the chip of crystal away with them into the
darkest deep of the forest and laid it in the green moss
where the green shadows were darkest under the green
trees. And after a time the magic of the pixies began to
work, and the greenness of the forest sank into the very

THE MAKING OF THE OPAL

heart of the crystal. Then they carried it back to the
fairy, and he saw that the greenness of the deep shadows
had sunk into the heart of the crystal, and because the
sunshine had peeped through the trees there was a glint
of light in it.

And that was the first emerald.

When the third fairy left the Crystal Mountain with his
little bit of rock under his arm, he flew away to that other
mountain where the fire-gnomes worked underground. At
the top of the fire-mountain there was a great hole, and when
the fairy stood at the edge and looked in he could see the
gnomes at work, keeping the fire alight that warms the
world. So he called out to them —

" Fire-gnomes, fire-gnomes, here is a chip from the
Crystal Mountain. Take it for me into the hottest and
deepest deep of the fire, and keep it there until its heart
is glowing red."

So the fire-gnomes took the chip of crystal and carried
it down, down into the deepest deep of the fire that warms
the world. And the fire sparkled and glowed and wrapped
it round. And before very long the crystal began to glow
too as it lay in the fire, for of course a fire that is hot
enough to warm the world is hot enough to warm a chip
of rock. So the fire-gnomes picked it up again and
carried it back to the fairy who was waiting at the edge
of the great hole ; and he saw that the heart of the crystal
chip was crimson and glowing Hke a fire.

And that was the first ruby.

Then he flew away from the fire-mountain with the ruby
safely tucked under his arm, and went back to the Dear

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

Princess. At the same moment the fairy with the emerald
arrived from the forest, and the fairy with the sapphire
came back from the sea. They flew to the feet of the
Dear Princess, and held out the beautiful stones to her.

The Princess clapped her hands and cried —

" Oh, how splendid, how splendid they are ! The blue is
like a bit of the dark sea, and the green is like the shade of
the forest with the sun peeping in, and the red is like the red
heart of the fire ! "

Then the first fairy laid the sapphire against her
dark hair.

"You must wear it on your wedding-day," he said.

But the second fairy held up the emerald and said —

" No, no, this is what you must wear ! "

And the third fairy laughed and cried —

" How silly they are ! Any one can see that red Is the
colour to wear in your dark hair ! "

The Princess looked from one to the other and was
puzzled. She thought all the stones were so beautiful
that she would have liked to wear them all ; but she did
not think they would look really nice all together.

" What am I to do ? " she said, puckering up her
forehead. " How can I choose when they are all so
beautiful ? "

Then there was a very long discussion about it. Each
of the three fairies wished his own stone to be worn, and
the Princess could not tell what to do.

" Each of them is quite beautiful," she said, " but,
dear fairies, I am obliged to say that I do not like the look
of them all together ! "

THE MAKING OF THE OPAL

All this time a very small fairy had been sitting quietly
in the corner, saying nothing, but thinking a great deal.
He came forward now and spoke.

" Give the stones to me," he said, " and I will settle
the question."

So he took the three stones and flew away, far up into
the sky, above the Princess's dark head, above the houses
and the trees, above the Crystal Mountain even, into the
misty sunshine behind the clouds.

Then he called to the sun-fairies —

" Sun-fairies, sun-fairies, melt me these stones in your
furnace. Melt them, and mix them, and make them into
one stone. And soften their colours with mist of sunshine,
so that my Dear Princess may wear them all together in
her hair."

So the sun-fairies carried the three stones away, and
melted them all into one, and mixed them with mist of
sunshine, and it lay over the colours like a cloud. And
then there was only one stone, but it was a great big one,
and as beautiful as all the others put together. For, you
see, that was just what it was.

The small fairy took it carefully into his tiny arms and
flew down again through the clouds, past the Crystal
Mountain and past the tops of the trees, to the feet of the
Dear Princess.

He held up the great gleaming stone to her, and she
thought she had never seen anything so beautiful. For
the blue of the sea was in it, and the green shade of the
forest, and the red heart of fire. And over the colours the
mist of sunshine lay like a veil.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

And that was the first opal.

Of course the Dear Princess of the Crystal Mountain
wore the great opal on the day that she was married to the
Prince of the Far Land over the Hill. And when she was
an old, old Princess, with white hair instead of dark, she
often showed the opal to her grandchildren, and told them
how it was made of blue sea, and green shadows, and fire,
melted all together by the fairies and mixed with mist
of sunshine.

OF COURSE THE DEAR PRINCESS .... WORE THE GREAT OPAL ON THE
DAY THAT SHE' WAS MARRIED

THE BIG SPIDER'S DIAMONDS

THE sun-fairies were hiding behind a black cloud ;
but in the middle of the cloud there was a
hole, and through this hole the sun-fairies
peeped.

In this way they were able to see everything that went
on in the garden where the Big Spider lived. If the Big
Spider had looked up at the sky he could have seen the
sun-fairies peeping through the hole in the black cloud ;
but he did not look up, because he was thinking of other
things. He was in an excited state of mind.

Quite lately the Big Spider had spun a most beautiful web
for himself, and had slung it between two tall blades of grass.
He was very proud of it, for it was the nicest web in all
the garden, being of a lovely and difficult pattern, and made
with great skill. And now something had happened in the
night to make it still more beautiful. While the Big Spider
was asleep the dew-fairies had crept up from the grass, and
had hung hundreds of sparkling diamonds on the strings of
his web. He knew it must have been done by the dew-
fairies, because they only keep the very best diamonds.

" Dear me, this is most kind of them," he said to him-
self. " They must have noticed that my web was the best
in the garden ; otherwise they would not have done it so
much honour."

As a matter of fact, the dew-fairies had been hanging
diamonds that night on the webs of all the spiders in the
garden ; but the Big Spider was so much occupied in

FAIRIES I HA VE MET

admiring his own web that he had no attention to spare for
the others.

" Good morning," he said pleasantly to a fly who was
passing. " Have you seen my diamonds ^ They look
very well there, don't they ? They show off the pattern of
the web. Won't you come a little closer ? You can hardly
see them properly at that distance. One really sees them
best when one is inside the web. Can't you come in this
morning ? "

" No, thank you," said the fly firmly ; for his mother
had told him that the Big Spider was not a nice friend for
little flies.

Then he flew away, and the Spider went on admiring
his diamonds. He looked at them first from the right,
and then from the left, and then he stepped backwards and
looked at them again. If you have ever seen a person who
paints pictures you will know exactly how he behaved.

All this time the sun-fairies had been peeping through
the hole in the black cloud and watching the Big Spider.
They could not help laughing at him.

" Ridiculous creature ! " cried one. " Look at him
admiring his web, as if it were the only one that had ever
been hung with diamonds 1 "

" If he would look about him a little bit," said another,
" he would see that the whole garden is blazing with
diamonds this morning."

" The very grass is all twinkly and shiny with them,"
said a third, " but the grass-fairies are not behaving in that
absurd way."

" No fairy would be so silly," said a fourth.

THE BIG SPIDER'S DIAMONDS

Suddenly a little sun-fairy began to clap his hands.

" I've got an idea," he cried.

As his ideas were generally full of mischief and very
interesting, all the other fairies stopped talking.

" It's a lovely idea," he went on, chuckling. " This is
what we'll do. We'll wait till that silly old Spider goes to
sleep or is busy, and then we'll rush down — quick as quick
— and steal his diamonds ! "

Then all the sun-fairies laughed and clapped their hands
so loudly that the hole in the black cloud grew a good deal
larger. They thought it was a grand idea.

They had not long to wait. Presently the Spider
became rather tired of admiring his diamonds all by himself,
so he set to work to send out invitations for a fly-party.
He asked all the flies in the neighbourhood to come and
see how nice his web looked when it was hung with
diamonds. As soon as the sun-fairies saw that he was busy
they took each other's hands, and with a little run and a
big jump they all burst through the hole in the black
cloud. Then they flew softly down to the garden where
the Big Spider lived.

" How nice and warm it is getting ! " thought the
Spider.

Presently he said to himself —

*' My diamonds must be sparkling beautifully in this
sunshine. I'll just take a look at them."

He turned round, expecting to see the pattern of his
web delicately outlined in sparks of light. You will not be
surprised to hear that he saw nothing of the kind. He saw
his web, it is true, looking like filmy lace against the green

73 ^

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

of the grass ; but there was not one single diamond hang-
ing upon it !

Then the rage of the Big Spider was terrible to see.

He stamped with all his legs, and he rolled himself
round and round, and he used all the most dreadful threats
in spider-language.

" I don't care who the thief is," he said ; " I shall think
no more of eating him than if he were a fly ! "

At that moment he heard the sweetest little laugh just
behind him. This made him so angry that he spent a long
time in looking for the person who laughed. While he was
still searching the sun-fairies flew up again to the black
clouds, carrying the diamonds with them.

" There," they said, as they threw the diamonds down
on the cloud, " he won't find them there ! "

They had forgotten for the moment that, hidden in the
black cloud, there were a great number of rain-fairies.
Now the rain-fairies never enjoy themselves so much as
when they are annoying the sun-fairies : and in the same
way there is nothing that pleases the sun-fairies so much as
a good quarrel with the rain-fairies. This does not pre-
vent them from being very friendly when they are not
quarrelling.

The rain-fairies had seen all that had happened. They
pretended to think that the sun-fairies had behaved very
unkindly to the Big Spider.

"It's too bad," they said, "to steal the poor thing's
diamonds. It's not fair. Let's throw them down to him."

Then a great fight began between the sun-fairies and
the rain-fairies for the diamonds, and the fight lasted a long

THE WEB \ND THE DIAMONDS AND THE BIG SPIDER HIMSELF ALL FELL TO

THE GROUND

THE BIG SPIDERS DIAMONDS

time, and all the time that it lasted the Big Spider was in
a rage.

At last the rain-fairies won the fight, and went off with
the diamonds in their arms.

" Now we'll throw them to the Big Spider," they said,
"and we'll see how glad he is when his web is hung with
diamonds as it was before."

They forgot that the dew-fairies, when they had trimmed
the web with the diamonds, had crept up softly and touched
the strings with gentle fingers. But the rain-fairies are
rather rough.

They flung out their little arms and threw the diamonds
down out of the black cloud. Down dropped the diamonds,
and down, and down, till they reached the garden where the
Big Spider lived, and the web that the Big Spider had made.
But instead of hanging on the web in rows, like little lighted
lamps, they dropped into the middle of it with a crash and
a dash and a splash, and broke it into a great many pieces,
so that the web and the diamonds and the Big Spider him-
self all fell to the ground.

And by the time the Big Spider was standing on all his
legs again the diamonds had disappeared into the grass.

The truth is that the dew-fairies had found them and
had taken them home. I expect they will keep them till
the Big Spider has made a new web.

A LITTLE GIRL IN A BOOK

CHRISTABEL was a little girl who read a great
many books. She noticed that the girls and
boys in the books were not altogether like the
girls and boys who played with her in the Square
and came to tea with her. The children in the books were
wonderfully brave and clever ; and when they were having
their magnificent adventures they always did exactly the
right thing at the right moment. They never had a dull
minute, and they never said anything silly. The girls and
boys who came to tea with Christabel were not like this,
and Christabel knew that she herself was not like this. She
never had any adventures, and she knew that even if she
ever did have one she would not behave at all bravely or
cleverly. And she was often so dull that she drummed
with her fingers on the window and said —

" What on earth shall I do ? "

Now, Christabel had a Big Sister who wrote books.

One day she said to her Big Sister —

" How I do wish I were a little girl in a book ! Nothing
ever happens to little girls in real life. It is so dull ! "

The Big Sister went on writing, and said nothing.

" It's no use talking to her," thought Christabel,
" because she always goes on writing."

A few days after this Christabel began to feel rather
strange. A kind of stiffness came into all her limbs, so that
they would not do what she told them. And sometimes
she found herself saying things that she had not intended to

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

say at all. This puzzled her and made her very uncom-
fortable. She wondered if other people noticed that there
was something wrong with her. She even thought of
speaking to her Big Sister about it, but the Big Sister was
so busy writing that it was no use to try and make her hear.

This went on for some time. Christabel grew stiffer
and stiffer, and more and more uncomfortable ; and her Big
Sister went on writing busily.

At last one day Christabel understood what had
happened. She woke up and found that everything round
her had changed ; the people and the place and everything.
She was frightened at first, and then the truth suddenly
flashed into her mind. A most remarkable and unusual
and unexpected thing had happened : her Big Sister had
put her into a book !

" So I really am a little girl in a book, after all ! " she
said to herself.

She tried to say it aloud, but she found she couldn't.
The words were not in the book, you see.

" Now I am going to enjoy myself," she thought, " and
never be dull any more."

There was not much chance of her being dull, for the
book was full of adventures and narrow escapes, and other
delightful things.

First she was captured by pirates ; and after having a
terrible time with them she was saved from them by a ship-
wreck. The shipwreck did not do her much good, how-
ever, for she at once fell into the hands of the most dreadful
savages. So you will understand that she was not at all
likely to be dull.

A LITTLE GIRL IN A BOOK

Christabel was delighted to find that she behaved, like
other little girls in books, with the greatest courage and
cleverness. Whenever an adventure was going on she
always managed to get out of every difficulty, and she saved
the lives of several of the other people in the book by her
bravery. The strange thing was that she found it quite
easy to be brave ; while she was a little girl in real life she
had not found it easy at all.

" I do hope the book has a happy ending," she thought
sometimes.

She wished very much that she could peep into the end
of the book, as she used to do when she was a little girl in
real life. Meantime every chapter was more exciting than
the last. Of course Christabel did not know whether she
would escape from the savages at all. Perhaps they were
going to eat her. That would not be a happy ending to the
book, she felt.

After a great many terrible dangers, she managed to
escape ; for a ship sailed into the bay at the right moment,
and took her home to England. This was the end of the
book. The person who was reading it shut it up with a
bang — and Christabel went to sleep.

By-and-by, some one else took up the book and began
to read it. Then Christabel woke up and found herself at
the beginning of the story. After so many adventures she
was rather tired, and did not feel inclined to begin them all
over again. But that was just what she had to do. Being
captured by pirates is not nearly so exciting when you know
you can only escape from them by a cold, wet shipwreck ;
and when you are shipwrecked you are not very anxious to

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

scramble ashore when you know there are a large number of
fierce savages waiting for you !

"This is rather tiresome," thought Christabel.

She was very glad when the person who was reading the
book shut it up again, and she was allowed to go quietly to
sleep.

But her sleep was not long. Every time any one began
to read the book poor Christabel was obliged to wake up
and go through all her troubles again. She soon became
horribly tired of being shipwrecked.

" Have I got to spend the rest of my life with pirates
and savages .'' " she asked herself in despair.

It was especially annoying that they were always the
same pirates and savages, who said always exactly the same
things. Christabel soon knew the whole book by heart.
She wished sometimes she could be one of the pirates for a
change, instead of being always a little girl.

" I suppose I shall never even be grown up," she
thought sadly.

The most unpleasant thing of all was that she was never
able to say what she wished to say : she was always obliged
to say what was in the book. Sometimes she opened her
mouth to say what was in her mind, and then found herself
speaking words that had nothing to do with her thoughts.

" It is simply hateful not to be able to say and do what
one likes," she thought.

She made up her mind to try and be drowned at the
very next shipwreck. Of course it was useless for her to
try, for the book said she was saved by a big wave which
flung her up on a rock. It was uncomfortable for her to

THE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE BOOK LOOKED AT HER IN SURPRISE

A LITTLE GIRL IN A BOOK

be saved in this way, but she could not avoid it. The
shipwreck happened in the usual way, in spite of her efforts
to be drowned ; and then, as usual, she met the savages on
the Island, and soon afterwards came the end of the
book.

Now, it happened this time that the person who was
reading the book did not shut it up at all, but handed it
at once to some one else who wished to read it. This was
really too much for Christabel's temper. She had had no
sleep, and she was determined not to begin all over again
without a rest. It suddenly struck her that this was her
only chance — now, before the beginning of the first
chapter.

She lost no time. She knew she ought to be standing
up — the book said she was standing up. Finding to her
great joy that she was able to move of her own accord,
she calmly sat down and folded her arms. The other
people in the book looked at her in surprise.

" It's no use looking at me like that," she said ; " I'm
tired of this. I'm not going on any more saying the same
things over and over again. If there's any pirate who
would like to change places with me I don't mind being
a pirate for a bit. But I'm not going on being the little
girl."

Then there was indeed an outcry. All the people in
the book began speaking at once. Just at that moment —
before the beginning of the first chapter — they were all
able to say what they chose.

" Make her stand up ! " cried one.

" I never heard such nonsense ! " said another.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

" Why can't she behave as we do ? " asked a third
angrily,

" The idea of wanting a change ! "

" She'll have to behave like other people in the end."

" So discontented ! "

" So very odd ! "

So they went on, while Christabel still sat calmly, with
her arms crossed.

" I'm not going to begin all over again," she repeated
firmly.

" But that poor boy is waiting to begin the book," said
some one ; " and we can't go on while you are behaving in
this silly way."

" I can't help that," said Christabel ; ** I'm tired of
saying things I don't a bit mean."

Before she knew what was going to happen Christabel
found herself in the middle of a terrible turmoil. All the
people in the book seemed to be rushing at her.

Far away she heard a voice saying —

"There's something very queer about this book. It
seems all in a muddle, somehow ! "

Then there was silence, and Christabel realized that the
people in the book had turned her out ! She was no
longer a little girl in a book, but a little girl in real life.
She looked round and saw her Big Sister, still writing.

" I don't want to be in a book any more," said
Christabel. " Real life is nicer. In real life one can
at least say what one thinks one's self, instead of always
saying what other people think."

" Don't be too sure of that," said her Big Sister.

THE FAIRY JVHO WAS
LOOKING FOR A HOME

THE FAIRY WHO WAS
LOOKING FOR A HOME

LITTLE Fairy Flitterwing had no home. When-
ever he settled down in a place something
J happened to turn him out. If he found a
comfortable rosebud some one would come
and pick it, and then it died and he was homeless again.
If he chose a pink-edged daisy to live in, the gardener
would mow the lawn at once. He grew very tired of
wandering about the garden, and he determined at last to
go out into the world in search of a home.

It was quite a small garden, in the middle of a town.
Flitterwing felt rather afraid of venturing into the streets,
because he knew there would not be many fairies there, and
not many nice places for a fairy to live in. So he was a
little sad and anxious as he flew over the high brick wall of
the garden and looked about him. He found himself in a
queer little yard, not nearly as nice as the garden, with a
pavement of round stones and an ugly brick house at one
end of it. There never was a more unlikely place for a
fairy to find a comfortable home. Flitterwing was on the
point of flying back again over the garden wall, when he
caught sight of something green at the further end of the
courtyard. Some grass had grown up among the stones.

" The very place for me ! " said Flitterwing to himself.
" No one is likely to disturb me here, and I can fly across
to the garden whenever I feel lonely."

So he found a cosy corner between two stones, where

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

the grass was thick and soft, and there he made up his mind
to stay. It was not, of course, the very best kind of place
for a fairy, but, after all, it was quiet and near his friends,
and he was terribly tired of moving about from rose to rose
and from daisy to daisy. So he thought he would make
the best of it.

Very soon he felt quite at home in the grass-patch at
the end of the yard. Every morning, of course, he had to
attend to the grass and see that it was always fresh and
green, for it is the business of every fairy to take care of
the place he lives in. He does it instead of paying rent.
Then, after polishing his wings nicely and making them
shine like opals, he would fly across the brick wall and have
a chat with the grass-fairies and flower-fairies in the garden.

His life went on in this quiet and comfortable way for
some time.

But one morning poor Flitterwing received a great
shock. He was very busy cleaning the grass with a
dewdrop, and thinking how strong and tall the blades had
grown since he first began to take care of them. They
were a good deal taller than himself now, and he was not
able to see over them. So, when he heard a heavy footstep
clattering across the yard, he peered between the blades of
grass to see who was coming.

" Oh dear, oh dear," he cried, " here's that dreadful
gardener ! I'm sure he's going to turn me out ! "

He quickly dropped the crumpled cobweb soaked in
dewdrop with which he was rubbing the green blades, and
folding his wings closely round him he hid himself in the
grass, and waited to see what was going to happen.

THE FAIRY LOOKING FOR A HOME

The gardener was carrying a basket in one hand, and
in the other a tool with dreadful prongs. He was going
to pull up the grass that had grown among the stones !
Poor Flitterwing's nice new home was going to be
spoilt !

One by one the tufts were dragged up by the roots,
while the sharp prongs clinked against the stones and the
gardener's fingers crumpled up the blades of grass that had
looked so green and fresh a few minutes before. Flitter-
wing was terribly frightened.

" The sooner I get out of this the better," he said to
himself, skipping away from the gardener's big fingers.
Then he spread his wings and flew up and away, over the
wall and over the garden and on and on. He went on
flying, flying, till all his friends were left far behind and he
came to strange streets such as he had never seen before.
Still he went on flying, flying. You see he was extremely
anxious to be very far away from the gardener with the big
fingers and the terrible, sharp prongs.

At last he became dreadfully tired. It would be im-
possible, he felt, to go on flying much longer, so he looked
about him for shelter. He saw an open window, and
beyond it a large cool room. Here was shelter at all
events, so he flew straight in. There were a number of
tables and chairs in the room, and at each table a man sat
writing ; but Flitterwing was too much frightened to see
anything. He only wanted to find a place where he could
hide and rest. A large ink-pot stood on a table, and just
inside the ink-pot was a little ledge where a fairy might rest
comfortably. Flitterwing lost no time ; he darted into the

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

ink-pot and sat down on the ledge. In a few moments he
folded his tired wings about him and fell fast asleep.

Now, the room into which Flitterwing had flown was a
place where a great deal of business was done. Every day
a number of men sat there adding up figures and writing
letters about dull things that neither you nor I could
understand. If you have done many sums, you will agree
with me that no sensible man could really like spending all
his time in adding up pounds, shillings, and pence. Very
few of the men in this big room really liked it. Some of
them wanted to be playing cricket or golf, some would
rather have been reading books or listening to beautiful
music ; and every one of them was longing to be in the
country among the flowers and the fairies. And there was
one among them — a little man with a pale face and a thin
coat — who wished above all things to be making poetry.
There were two good reasons against his doing this. In
the first place, he was obliged to earn money, and this is
more easily done by adding up figures than by making
poetry ; and in the second place, he did not in the least
know how poetry ought to be made.

On the sunny morning when Flitterwing took refuge in
the ink-pot the Man in the Thin Coat was very busy. There
were rows and rows of figures waiting to be added up, so
that there seemed to be no end to them. A large sheet of
paper was before him on which he was doing these sums,
and the figures were arranged in terribly long columns —
and no doubt you know how unpleasant that is. Suddenly
something glittered in the air for a moment and then
disappeared. It was so bright that it caught his eye and

THE FAIRY LOOKING FOR A HOME

made him lose his place. He thought it was some beautiful
kind of insect with the sunshine caught in its wings.

" It was like a messenger from, the summer ! " he said
to himself.

Then he dipped his pen in the ink-pot and went back
to his sums.

He had been working busily for some time when he
noticed something very curious. His pen was not writing
figures at all 1 He was thinking about figures, and he
wished to put figures on the paper, so it was a very strange
thing that his pen was writing words all the time. The
words were arranged in short lines with a capital letter at
the beginning of each line,

"Dear me, how annoying!" he said to himself. "What
can I have been thinking of .f" This will never do."

So he took a fresh sheet and began again.

He imagined that he was copying all the figures on to
the clean sheet of paper, for that was what he intended to
do. He wrote the figures very quickly, as he thought
because he wanted to make up for lost time. Then he
glanced at what he had written — and threw down his pen
angrily.

There were no figures at all on the paper ; nothing but
line after line of words. He began to think he must have
got a sunstroke.

" This is really terrible ! " he muttered. " 1 must
pay more attention to what I am doing."

So he took another clean sheet of paper and began
again.

It was no use ; the pen refused to make a single figure.

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

Then the Man in the Thin Coat was in despair. He
pushed the paper away from him and threw himself back in
his chair.

" There is something very serious the matter with me,'*
he said to himself. He did not notice that another man
had come up to the table and was gathering together the
sheets of paper that lay on it. This was the person who
paid the Man in the Thin Coat for doing his sums for him.
He had a round face and a big waistcoat.

" Come, come ! what's this .? " he said, looking at the
sheets of paper. " Poetry, I declare ! So you're a poet,
are you } That's all very well, but I don't pay you to write
poetry."

The poor Man in the Thin Coat looked very much
disturbed. When you come to think of it, it is a disturbing
thing to find you are writing poetry when you imagine
you are doing sums.

" I couldn't help it," he said meekly.

" Yes, yes, that's the excuse they all make," said the
Man with the Big Waistcoat. Then he took up the
papers and began to read. There was silence in the room
while he was reading the poem that the Man in the Thin
Coat had written by mistake ; every one left off working,
and watched with great interest to see what would happen.
The silence lasted for some time.

" Dear me ! " said the Man with the Big Waistcoat at
last. " This is a very beautiful poem 1 "

Then he began to read aloud.

The poem was about the summer ; about the sunshine
and the blue sky and the singing larks that were far away

THE FAIRY LOOKING FOR A HOME

from that ugly room. It seemed as though the far-ofF
fields and the glory of the sun had been really brought
there, to the tired men who sat listening. And to each
man as he listened came a dream of the thing he loved best.
To one man the room seemed to have turned into a garden ;
the scent of a thousand roses was in the air, and the colours
of a thousand flowers. Another man thought he was in a
field, lying under a tree and looking at the pattern of the
leaves against the sky. And another saw the sunshine
sparkling on the dear sea, and the little ripples running
races on the sand. But the Man in the Thin Coat saw
more things than any of them.

And while they were all listening to the beautiful poem
about the summer, little Fairy Flitterwing slipped out of
the ink-pot and flew off to play with a sunbeam on the
window-sill. The sunbeam showed him a very comfortable
scarlet geranium that was growing in a window not far off,
so Flitterwing went to live in it, and found a safe home
at last.

And the Man in the Thin Coat went back to his sums.
He was happier than he had ever been before, because he
had written a beautiful poem. He was never able to write
any more poetry, and he thought this was rather odd
until, years afterwards, his little daughter guessed the truth.
He had just finished reading to her his poem about the
summer.

" Why, Daddy," she said, " there must have been a fairy
in your ink-pot when you wrote that ! "

rUE BOX OF DREAMS

THE BOX OF DREAMS

IONG ago there lived in a far country a little
girl called Gretel, whose mother was dying.
J Before she died she said to Gretel —

" I am very poor, and I have no money
to leave for you after I am gone. I have nothing to give
you but this box. It was given to me when I was a child
by some one who was wise and good. You must be very
careful of it, for it is full of Dreams, and they are hard
to keep safely. You must never open the box except
when you are alone, or the Dreams will fly away. But
keep them safely till your hair is grey, and something
will happen to surprise you."

Gretel took the box and hid it safely, and said nothing
about it to any one. Her mother died a few days after-
wards, and then Gretel was sent away to be a little servant,
and to work very hard. She had to get up early, and
light the fire, and feed the pigs, and she had to wash the
dishes and scrub the floor, and do a great many other
things, so that there was very little time for anything but
work. All the time her box of Dreams was hidden away
upstairs in her little trunk, underneath her Sunday frock.
Often, when she was working in the kitchen, or in the
farmyard among the hens, she was thinking of her box
of Dreams ; and sometimes when she was quite alone she
would open it and look inside. The first time she opened
the box she felt a little bit frightened, for she had never
seen any Dreams before, and she was not sure what they

97 E

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

were like ; but when she saw them, soft and pink and
downy, like lovely sleeping birds, she was not frightened
any more.

" Oh, but they are pretty things ! " she said to herself.
" How I hope I shall be able to keep them safely till my
hair is grey 1 They look as if a breath would blow them
away, out of the window and over the hill ! "

For a long time she was very careful not to let any
one see her pretty rosy Dreams. Indeed, she never spoke
of them ; and the old farmer's wife, whose servant she
was, little guessed that anything so strange as a box of
Dreams was hidden upstairs in the garret, underneath
Gretel's Sunday frock.

The farmer and his wife had a son about the same age
as Gretel. His name was Eitel. He was a big, clumsy
sort of boy, and not very clever ; but Gretel had very few
friends, so when Eitel was kind to her and talked to her
over the fire in the evenings she was very glad. Sometimes
he carried the big bucket for her when she went out to feed
the pigs, and sometimes in the summer they made hay
together in the field on the hillside. In this way they
became great friends. Gretel told Eitel everything that had
happened to her since she was a little child ; and one day
she told him about her box of Dreams.

" Let me see them, Gretel dear," said Eitel.

" Oh, but I mustn't ! " said Gretel. " No one must see
them till my hair is grey. If any one sees them they will
fly away, out of the window and over the hill."

" What are they like } " asked Eitel. " And what are
they for ? "

THE BOX OF DREAMS

"They are lovely," said Gretel, "but I don't know yet
what they are for."

" Come, let me see them," said Eitel coaxingly. " I
believe I see a grey hair on your head, Gretel."

It was really a bit of white thread, but Gretel thought
her hair must be growing grey, so she ran upstairs and
fetched the box of Dreams down to the kitchen. She
opened the box very carefully, and Eitel peeped in.

Pouf! Pouf! Half-a-dozen soft rosy Dreams fluttered
out from under the lid, and hovered in the air for a moment
like wisps of pink mist. Gretel shut the box with a snap,
and tried to catch the floating Dreams with her fingers.
But it was too late. They floated higher and higher, farther
and farther, out of the window and over the hill.

" Oh, Eitel," cried Gretel, sobbing, " I have lost my
Dreams — so many of them — so many of them ! "

" Well," said Eitel, " I don't see that there's much to
cry about. They were only pink fluff after all ! I wouldn't
cry about pink fluff if I were you ! "

So Eitel went out of the house whistling, and thinking
that girls were sometimes very silly ; while Gretel carried
her box upstairs, crying, and thinking that boys were often
very unkind. As soon as she was in her room she opened
her box again, and found to her great joy that it was still
half full of beautiful Dreams.

She soon made friends with Eitel again, but she never
spoke to him any more about her box of Dreams.

As the years went by Gretel became first a big girl and
then a grown-up woman, and still she had to work for her
living. She lived in a good many different places, sometimes

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

with nice people and sometimes with people who were
not kind to her ; but wherever she lived she had to scrub
and sweep, and get up early and go to bed late. She still
kept her box of Dreams safely in her little trunk, hidden
under her Sunday frock. Since the time that she had lost
so many of her Dreams she had never opened the box
except when she was alone. She was afraid of losing some
more ; and, besides, she did not like it when Eitel laughed
at her and called her pretty Dreams " nothing but pink
fluff." So she made up her mind to wait till her hair was
really grey.

It seemed to her sometimes that this would never
happen 1 Her hair was browner than other people's, she
thought, and was not going to turn grey at all. But
though the time seemed so long to her, she was as a matter
of fact still a young woman when she discovered that there
were two grey hairs growing among the brown ones. She
was combing her hair at the time, and the moment she saw
the grey hairs she dropped the comb, and clapping her
hands for joy ran quickly to get her box of Dreams out
of her little trunk. She was so much excited that her
trembling fingers could hardly undo the fastenings of
the box.

When the box was at last open she was still more
excited. Her mother had promised that she should be
surprised, but she had not expected such a strange and
delightful and altogether wonderful surprise as this ! You
could never guess what had happened ! Her pretty rosy
Dreams had all turned into jewels more splendid than any
you ever saw or heard about ! Every kind of precious

lOO

THE BOX OF DREAMS

stone was there — emeralds and pearls and fiery opals,
glowing rubies and sea-blue sapphires, besides a great many-
strange stones whose names you have never heard.

Gretel gasped.

She sat on the floor beside the box, and stared and
stared. She could hardly believe that the glittering things
were real, and she could not believe at all that they
belonged to her. At first she expected every minute that
they would disappear, and she was afraid to touch them ;
but presently she took courage and lifted them out of the
box one by one. Then she took them to the light, and
they looked still more beautiful than before.

As Gretel sat on the floor near the window, with the
many-coloured jewels glimmering and shimmering in her
lap, she came gradually to understand that when her mother
gave her the box of Dreams she gave her great riches.

Gretel lived to be very old, but she never lost her
jewels. She was able now to show them to all the world
without any danger of their flying away, and as time went
on the people flocked to see her and her jewels. Eitel
admired them as much as any one, but he could never be
persuaded that the fluffy pink things he had once seen had
really turned into these shining and wonderful stones.

lOI

THE FAIRY WHO HAD
ONLY ONE JFING

rUE FAIRY WHO HAD
ONLY ONE WING

I AM going to tell you now about a fairy who lost
one of his wings. His home was in a white
rosebud, which one would imagine to be a nice,
safe, comfortable home for a fairy to have. And
yet it was while he was in the white rosebud that the
terrible accident happened which left him with only one
wing.

All would have been well if he had stayed in the
country. But one day a man came with scissors and
snipped the white rosebud off the tree, and packed it in
cotton-wool, and sent it off to London. Of course the
fairy had to go too, and a very uncomfortable journey he
had. There were a number of other flowers packed in the
same box, and in each flower there was a fairy ; so they
were all able to grumble together. But you can't grumble
with any real comfort when you are packed very tightly,
and have to talk through a good deal of cotton- wool.

At last the journey was over, and the rosebud was
taken out of the cotton-wool and put in water. Then the
fairy crept up from the heart of the rosebud, and put his
head over the edge of the petals and looked about him.

There were flowers all round him : flowers in pots,
flowers in glasses, flowers lying on the table, flowers in
baskets, and great bunches of flowers in the big window.
The truth was that the rosebud was in a flower-shop, but
he did not know this. He only knew that it was very

105

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

pleasant to be again in a place that was full of flowers and
fairies.

He thought he was going to enjoy himself; but that
was because he did not know how cruelly fairies are some-
times treated in flower-shops. The people who arrange
the flowers have a horrible way of trying to kill the fairies ;
and this is what they do. They take a dreadful, sharp
piece of wire and poke It through the very heart of the
flower, and then fasten it tightly round the stem ! You
will see at once that nothing is more likely to hurt a fairy
than this. Indeed, he would certainly be killed, if it were
not almost impossible to kill a fairy.

The little rosebud-fairy was lying comfortably curled
up, deep down among the white petals of the rose, when
suddenly he saw coming through the walls of his home a
sharp glittering point !

" Oh dear ! " he cried, trying to scramble out of the
way.

But that was no use, the glittering point came nearer
and nearer.

" Oh dear — oh dear ! " he cried again. " Where is it
coming to } Oh — it's coming this way — the horrible thing.
Oh— oh— oh ! "

It was no wonder that he cried out. The dreadful
wire had caught one of his beautiful gossamer wings, and
dragged it, and torn it, till there was nothing left of it but
some little shreds of fluttering gauze.

" What shall I do .? " he wailed. " How can I fly with
only one wing, and what is the use of a fairy that can't fly ?
What shall I do ? "

io6

THE FAIRY WHO HAD ONLY ONE WING

He picked up the torn pieces of his wing and wondered
if he could mend them. But he soon saw that it was
impossible, so he folded them up carefully and laid them
inside the rose-petals ; and ever afterwards there was a faint
tinge of pink deep down in the heart of the rosebud.

For a long time, long after the rosebud had been tied
up with a sprig of fern and put in the window, the poor
little fairy went on moaning and sighing over the loss of
his wing. He was still sighing when a little girl came into
the shop. If the fairy had not been hiding among the
petals of his rosebud he would have seen at once that she
was the kind of little girl that the fairies always love ; a
little girl with bright eyes and a laughing face — altogether
a very nice little girl. She pointed to the white rosebud
and said —

" I want to buy that rosebud, please, for Granny's
birthday."

In another minute she was walking along the street
with the rosebud in her fat hand.

Then the fairy crept up from the heart of the rose and
looked over the edge of the petals. The little girl saw
him at once and was not at all surprised.

*' There you are ! " she said. " I wondered when you
would look out. Of course I knew there was a fairy in the
rosebud, or I wouldn't have bought it. It would have
been no use, you see."

"What a very nice little girl!" thought the fairy.
" She seems to have a great deal of sense."

The little girl went on : " Poor thing, I see your wing
has been torn off. That nearly always happens to the

107

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

fairies that come from flower-shops. But I dare say Granny
won't mind. She sees very few fairies. I am going to
leave you at Granny's house because it is her birthday.
Now remember, you're to be very nice to Granny, because
she sees so few fairies."

By this time they had reached Granny's house. Granny
lived all alone in a very splendid house in a great square.
The house had a great many fine things in it : handsome
furniture and valuable china and grand silks and brocades.
But there was not a single, fairy in it, and a house that has
no fairies in it is a very dull place.

Granny was sitting alone on her birthday. She looked
round the great drawing-room and thought there were
a number of empty chairs and sofas in it. That made her
feel very lonely. No one had been to see her on her
birthday ; she had had no presents or letters ; no one had
noticed her birthday at all. If there had been any fairies
in the house Granny would not have felt so lonely, because
the fairies are always good company. But poor Granny
had quite forgotten all about the fairies ; it was so long
since she had seen any.

Then a footman brought the white rosebud into the
room, with a message from the little girl with the bright
eyes and the nice laughing face.

Granny sat for a long time with the white rosebud on
her knee. She felt happier than she had been all day.
She sat so still that the fairy thought he might safely peep
out and see what was going on. To his great surprise
Granny noticed him at once ; he had not thought it at all
likely that she would .see him, for she was not the kind of

1 08

THE FAIRY WHO HAD ONLY ONE WING

person who often sees fairies. Probably she would not
have seen him if she had not been so sad and lonely.

" Why," she said, "it's a fairy ! It is years since I saw
a fairy. I thought I should never see one again."

When the fairy saw that Granny was glad to see him, he
crept out of the rosebud and sat on her wrinkled hand, and
talked to her.

" Poor little thing," said Granny, " you have lost one of
your wings. Well, it was not likely that any but a one-
winged fairy would find his way in here."

Then she sighed. So the fairy, to cheer her up, told
her all about the lovely garden he had left behind him in
the country — the garden where he had lived before the man
with the scissors came to cut the rosebud. He told her
about the other roses and the fairies that lived in them,
and the tall hollyhocks whose fairies were so prim and old-
fashioned, and the sweet, shy love-in-a-mist whose fairies
always wore veils when they went out, and the sunflower-
fairies who had never been taught that it was rude to stare,
and the dear unselfish verbena fairies who made the world
so sweet for other people and never thought of themselves.
Then Granny remembered all sorts of things that she had
forgotten for years — fairies she used to know when she was
a little girl, and the stories they used to tell her. She told
some of the stories to the rosebud fairy, and they talked
together for a long time. Granny was happier that evening
than she had been for a great many evenings. She said
to herself that her birthday had been a very nice one
after all.

" Won't you come and live with me ? " she said.

109

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

The fairy looked round the room,

'* Well," he said, " I should like to stay very much, but
I really don't see any place here for me to live. My rosebud
will soon die and be thrown away."

" But if I were to keep the rosebud always, even when
it was dead } Would you stay then ? "

The fairy thought for a moment.

" I tell you plainly," he said, " that I don't like the idea
of living in a dead rosebud. But I know it's done some-
times, and one mustn't be too particular when one has only
one wing."

" I'll ask the little girl who brought you here to come
and see you often," said Granny, " and you and I will go
out to-morrow and buy some picture-books for her, and
some chocolates, and then we shall all three enjoy ourselves
together."

The fairy nodded happily.

" That settles it," he said. '' I'll stay."

THE LITTLE EOT FROM TOIFN

THE LITTLE EOT FROM TOWN

IF you spend all the year in a big town it is a fine
thing to have a summer holiday near the sea.
Otherwise you never have a chance of making
friends with the sea-fairies or the mermaids, who
are the most delightful playmates in the world. You may
know all kinds of other fairies, and be quite intimate with
them, but as long as you live nothing can ever make up to
you for not knowing the sea-fairies.

Little Michael was eight years old, and he had never
met a sea-fairy, for he lived in a great town. Then at last
his father and mother and he went off for a whole month to
the seaside. There were sands there, very hard and yellow
and good to make castles with ; and there were lonely caves
with dripping walls ; and there were heaps of slimy, green
seaweed, and shells, and rocks for climbing on. Best of
all, there were plenty of fairies. Michael made friends with
all the fairies of the sea and shore ; but his greatest and
best friend was a Mermaid who lived in a cave.

The roof of the cave was wet and green, and its floor
was pebbly, with here and there a rock. Every day Michael
came and sat on one of the rocks and listened to the Mer-
maid's stories, and to the soft, lapping sound of the little
waves. The Mermaid told him such stories as he had
never heard before, for she had not always been in that
cave, but had swum in deep seas and lived on many shores.
She told Michael of places where the sea was warm and
green, and the rocks were made of coral, and palm-trees

113

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

shaded the mermaids when they played upon the sands.
She told him too of bitter seas that were made of ice, so
that no mermaid could swim in them ; and of towering
icebergs shining in the sun ; and of white mist-fairies, who
turned the hair of mermaids into a shower of icicles. Then
she told him of sailors who had been her friends, and how
some of them were sailing far away, and some of them were
drowned, and how all of them were good playmates.

While Michael listened to these stories his eyes were
very round and wide open, and often his mouth was open
too. He had never enjoyed anything so much before, and
he thought it would be dreadful when the day came for him
to leave the dancing sea-fairies and the Mermaid's cave, and
go back to the big town where he hardly ever saw any
fairies at all. One day he said —

" Mermaid dear, I want something to take back to
town with me ; something to make me remember the sea-
fairies and you, and to make me think of the sea for ever
and ever."

" Tell me what you want," said the Mermaid, smiling ;
" and if I can get it for you, I will."

" Well," said Michael, " it's rather a big thing I was
thinking of. Perhaps it's too big to ask for. But you see
the Bay is full of white-horses to-day. Do you think you
could possibly catch one for me ? I think if I could take
home a white-horse from the Bay, I should remember the
sea for ever and ever."

The Mermaid slipped off her rock and dived into the
deep water. A few moments afterwards Michael saw her
far out in the Bay, with her hair floating in the wind, and

114

THE LITTLE BOY FROM TOWN

her tail glittering under the waves. There were a great
many wind-fairies playing about that morning, and that was
the reason that the Bay was full of white-horses, for when
the wind-fairies are playing on the sea they always ride
white-horses.

Michael climbed a high rock and stood on the very top
of it, and watched the Mermaid. It was grand to see her
gliding through the water, chasing first one white-horse and
then another, diving and darting and dodging, and enjoying
herself all the time.

" Quick, quick ! " cried Michael. " You nearly had
him that time ! "

But she was not quick enough, for the white-horse was
far out of reach even as she threw out her white arms to
catch his mane.

The chase lasted a long time, for though mermaids can
swim better than most people, a white-horse on the sea
is one of the hardest things to catch. At last, however,
Michael clapped his hands and shouted —

" She's got him, she's got him ! Hurrah — now I shall
have a white-horse to take home with me, and to make me
think of the sea for ever and ever ! "

If it had been a fine sight to see the Mermaid chasing
the white-horse across the Bay, it was far finer to see them
come prancing back again. The Mermaid was not swim-
ming this time, but riding on the back of the angry white-
horse, who plunged and galloped across the Bay, tossing his
long mane. And the Mermaid tossed her golden hair and
laughed, because she was enjoying her ride. Michael
laughed aloud too, because when the white mane and the

115

FAIRIES I HAVE MET

golden hair streamed, up together upon the wind they were
very beautiful to see.

And now a very curious and unfortunate thing happened.
The wind-fairies suddenly grew tired and went to sleep,
every one of them. Now when the wind-fairies go to sleep,
the white-horses always dive down below the sea and go to
sleep too. Before the Mermaid had reached the shore she
was swirmning again, for her white-horse had suddenly
disappeared and left her with nothing to ride. He had
gone to sleep below the sea until the next time the wind-
fairies wanted to play.

" Oh, Mermaid dear," cried Michael, " what have you
done with my nice new horse } "

" I am very sorry to tell you," said the Mermaid, lying
down on the sand to rest herself, " that he has gone below
the sea to sleep. It is really most unfortunate, but when a
white-horse wants to sleep you can't stop him."

" Oh dear, oh dear," said Michael piteously, for it was
a great disappointment. " I did so much want to have a
white-horse to make me think of the sea for ever and ever."

" Wouldn't anything else do instead } " asked the
Mermaid, who was Ytry kind.

Then Michael noticed that every time a litde wave
reached the shore it broke on the rocks in a shower of
coloured jewels. He pointed to them.

"Bring me some of those, please, Mermaid dear," he
said.

So the Mermaid took a large shell, shaped like a saucer,
and waited on a rock till a little wave came in and sprinkled
the rock with jewels. She held out her shell to catch the

ii6

THE LITTLE BOY FROM TOWN

jewels, but as soon as they touched the shell they changed
into water.

"Look," she said to Michael, " the jewels have melted."

"Oh dear," said Michael, "what am I to do? I am
going back to town to-morrow, and I have nothing to
remind me of the sea ! "

" Do you really and truly wish to think of the sea for
ever and ever ? " asked the Mermaid.

"Of course I do," said Michael.

"Then I will sing you the Sea Song," said the Mer-
maid, " and after that there will be nothing that can make
you forget the sea."

So while Michael sat on the rock and looked at the sea,
the Mermaid sang him the Sea Song, which mermaids have
sung to sailors ever since the first ship was built. It is a
song that no one ever torgets. It is like the voice oi the
sea calling, calling ; and there are many people who hear it
always, even in their dreams. If they are people who have
to live in towns, or in country places far from the sea, they
are not very happy.

When the Mermaid had finished singing, she said —

" Now I have given you something that will make you
think of the sea for ever and ever."

The next day Michael went back to town. He took
with him the sound of the Sea Song ; and for ever after-
wards he heard the voice of the sea calling, calling, even in
his dreams.

That was why he became a sailor when he was old
enough.

117

UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED,
WOKING AND LONDON,

//\

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