"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.