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+Project Gutenberg's Fairies I Have Met, by Maud Margaret Key Stawell
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Fairies I Have Met
+
+Author: Maud Margaret Key Stawell
+
+Illustrator: Edmund Dulac
+
+Release Date: December 9, 2011 [EBook #38252]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FAIRIES I HAVE MET ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Cathy Maxam, and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+_FAIRIES I HAVE MET_
+
+[Illustration: "PLEASE," SHE SAID, "I WANT TO BE A NIGHTINGALE"]
+
+
+
+
+  _FAIRIES I HAVE MET_
+
+  _BY MRS. RODOLPH STAWELL_
+
+  _ILLUSTRATED IN COLOUR BY_
+  _EDMUND DULAC_
+
+  _HODDER AND STOUGHTON_
+  _NEW YORK AND LONDON_
+
+
+
+
+_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 Sunbeam the First.
+
+"That is more than I can say," he answered. "Perhaps 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      111
+
+
+
+
+_ILLUSTRATIONS_
+
+
+  THE BIRD OF SHADOWS AND THE SUN-BIRD
+    "Please," she said, "I want to be a nightingale"       _Frontispiece_
+
+                                                           TO FACE PAGE
+
+  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
+
+  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_
+
+
+Little Agatha lived in the days when castles were as common in the land
+as cottages are now, 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 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 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 better than anything she had. She liked to watch the soft
+lights and shades on 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 nightingales 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 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 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 promised. 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-FAIRY AND THE LAND-FAIRY, AND HOW THEY QUARRELLED_
+
+
+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."
+
+"And _you_ never have any change," answered Laughing Sapphire.
+
+"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."
+
+[Illustration: HE HELD OUT THE LITTLE SHELL IN THE BEAM OF COLOURED
+LIGHT]
+
+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.
+
+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 off 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 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 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."
+
+"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 thoughtfully, "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 stopping 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 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 Hedgeflower 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: Meadowsweet, and that cheeky little
+Eyebright, and Buttercup who 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 different 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 petticoat 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.
+
+"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 disaster
+happened which was talked about for many a day afterwards.
+
+[Illustration: SHE SMILED AT HIM VERY GRACIOUSLY WHEN HE WAS INTRODUCED
+TO HER]
+
+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.
+
+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 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 without 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 comfortable 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. 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, Pearlywing 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 it, and come back
+for another. I 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 carefully 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, spluttering 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 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 waiting 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.
+
+[Illustration: AND BECAUSE THE SILVER OF THE MOONSHINE-FAIRIES IS VERY
+LIGHT HE WAS ABLE TO CARRY A GREAT DEAL OF IT]
+
+When the other cloud-fairies saw the beautiful silver he had brought
+with him they were delighted. They all set to 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."
+
+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 sunbeam. 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-Morning, "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!"
+
+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 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, trailing 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_
+
+
+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 Starblossom, 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 underground 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 Starblossom. "It will be a
+very big storm, I'm afraid."
+
+"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," Starblossom 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 I 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 Starblossom; "but of
+course if I make your snowflakes you must make my flowers. That is only
+fair."
+
+[Illustration: DROP-OF-CRYSTAL WAS TOO BUSY TO SPEAK]
+
+"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 Starblossom 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! 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 I
+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 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!"
+
+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 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 are 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 Mountain sat and waited, with her
+cloud of hair hanging round her.
+
+Very soon she saw them flying back, some from gardens and 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 daffodils.
+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 daffodils!" 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!"
+
+"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 off 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 off in different 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 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 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 like 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 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!"
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+[Illustration: 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 himself. "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 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!"
+
+"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.
+
+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 of the grass; but there was not one single
+diamond hanging 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 prevent 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 time, and all the time
+that it lasted the Big Spider was in a rage.
+
+[Illustration: THE WEB AND THE DIAMONDS AND THE BIG SPIDER HIMSELF ALL
+FELL TO THE GROUND]
+
+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 himself 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 say at all. This puzzled her and made her very
+uncomfortable. 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 shipwreck. The shipwreck did not do
+her much good, however, 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.
+
+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 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 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.
+
+[Illustration: THE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE BOOK LOOKED AT HER IN SURPRISE]
+
+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.
+
+"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 WHO WAS LOOKING FOR A HOME_
+
+
+Little Fairy Flitterwing had no home. Whenever he settled down in a
+place something 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 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 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. Flitterwing 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 impossible, 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 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 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! 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? 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. "I 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.
+
+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!"
+
+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 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!"
+
+
+
+
+_THE BOX OF DREAMS_
+
+
+Long ago there lived in a far country a little girl called Gretel, whose
+mother was dying. 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 afterwards, 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
+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! 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?"
+
+"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 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! 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 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.
+
+
+
+
+_THE 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
+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 sometimes 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?"
+
+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 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 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.
+
+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 sometimes, 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 BOY 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 Mermaid'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 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 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 swimming 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 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 swimming 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 very
+kind.
+
+Then Michael noticed that every time a little 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 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 Mermaid, "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 forgets. It is like
+the voice of 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 afterwards 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.
+
+
+
+
+  The Gresham Press,
+  UNWIN BROTHERS, LIMITED,
+  WOKING AND LONDON.
+
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE:
+
+Illustrations have been moved to the nearest paragraph break.
+
+Two printer errors have been corrected:
+
+    1. On page 26 a missing hyphen was added in the phrase:
+    "Sweet-of-the-Mountain."
+
+    2. On page 48 a missing hyphen was added in the phrase: "Then all
+    the sunbeam-fairies shouted...."
+
+In all other cases, the author's original spelling and
+punctuation have been left intact.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Fairies I Have Met, by Maud Margaret Key Stawell
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