"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.