"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?"