THE FAIRY BELL.
There was a pretty little silver bell on papa’s desk, but the children
never knew that it was a fairy bell until one summer afternoon.
It all happened in this way. They had been playing school and Dorothy
was the teacher. She said:--
“When I ring this bell once you must sit up straight and when I ring it
twice you must stand!” They played all the afternoon, and the teacher
romped with the pupil and they both rang the bell until they were tired
of it. All at once, as they sat in the great leather-covered chair, the
bell began to ring itself, but instead of the little tinkle, tinkle, it
sounded just like joyous wedding-bells.
The children rubbed their eyes and looked at the little silver bell,
and there right on the top of it stood a beautiful little fairy with
silver wings and a dress that shone like silver.
She smiled at the children and said. “You rang for me and I am here.”
“Who are you, please?” asked Ray.
“I am the fairy of the silver bell and my name is Tinkle.”
“Where do you live?” said Dorothy timidly.
“I live in Prince Jingle’s country, but when anybody rings for me I
come to attend.”
“How I would love to visit Prince Jingle’s country!” exclaimed Dorothy.
“Wouldn’t you, Ray?”
“Yes, indeed,” replied Ray, “it would be fine.”
“Very well,” said the fairy, “you shall go. Take hold of the tongue
of the bell with both hands and don’t let go till I tell you.” The
children did as the fairy told them and in a few moments they were
moving through the air under the silver dome of the bell.
“Don’t be afraid, children,” cried the fairy, “I am sitting on the top
and will guide you safely.”
“Thank you,” said Ray, “what fun this is! Be careful, Dorothy, to hold
on tight.”
All at once they stopped. The children felt something hard under their
feet, and the fairy Tinkle said, “Come out, children, and go where you
please.” Then she disappeared and the children looked around to see
their new surroundings.
“I suppose this is Prince Jingle’s country,” said Ray; “let us walk
through it.” Just as they started to walk, they heard the most
beautiful bells ringing. It was like sweet music and far clearer and
prettier than any chimes. In a short time they came in sight of a
beautiful silver castle. Silver coaches and carriages were standing
outside and lovely ladies were walking into the castle on the arms of
handsome men.
“We must go in the castle, too,” said Ray.
But Dorothy exclaimed, “O dear, I couldn’t, because I’m not dressed
nice enough.”
“Never mind that,” said Ray, “come along.”
“O, no,” cried Dorothy, “I’m _not_ going, because I’ve nothing to wear.”
“Bother,” said Ray, “you girls are always saying that; do you ever feel
that you are dressed nice enough?”
“N--no, I don’t think we ever do; still, if I had on my best dress, I’d
go in.”
“Well, if you won’t come, I’m going alone,” returned Ray, and he
started off and left Dorothy standing there.
“O Ray, come back! come back!” called Dorothy. “I’ll go with you.” But
Ray was so far ahead that he never heard his little cousin calling, and
the last Dorothy saw of him he was just going into the castle. Dorothy
felt so badly to think that she was left alone she sat on the silvery
ground and began to cry. Then a very queer thing happened. The first
tear that rolled down Dorothy’s cheeks congealed into a tiny solid
silver ball, and fell in her lap.
Dorothy stopped crying and gazed at the tear that had become a silver
ball. She took it up in her hand, and all of a sudden it began to grow
larger and larger. Then it changed a little in shape, and almost before
Dorothy knew it her silver tear-drop had turned itself into the dearest
little silver bell you ever saw.
“How pretty!” exclaimed Dorothy, and she rang the tiny bell that had
been made from a tear-drop in her own blue eye.
It gave the prettiest little tinkling sound in the world and she liked
it so well that she rang it again and again.
Suddenly there appeared before Dorothy a beautiful fairy in a
shimmering gown of silvery gray.
“I am sorry you had to ring so many times for me,” said the fairy, “but
I was busy dressing Princess Bell and I could not get here sooner.”
“I did not ring for you,” answered Dorothy, “but I am very glad you
came.”
“Whenever that bell is rung I come,” said the fairy. “Pray tell me what
I can do for you?”
The thought struck Dorothy that perhaps the fairy could give her
something pretty to wear, and then she would go into the silver castle.
“If you please, good fairy, I would love to go to the castle, if you
would help me with a pretty dress.”
“Certainly,” answered the fairy, and she touched Dorothy lightly on the
shoulder. Instantly Dorothy’s white pinafore changed into a silvery
robe all spangled and dazzling in its beauty.
Then she touched Dorothy’s ankle ties and they became silver slippers
with a satin rosette on each one.
“O, thank you,” said the happy little girl, looking down at her
beautiful dress.
“You are very welcome,” returned the fairy, and then added, “Shall I
call a chariot?”
“If you please,” said Dorothy, who wasn’t quite sure what it was,
but had a strong feeling that she wanted it. The fairy blew a tiny
silver horn and immediately there appeared a silver chariot drawn by
four silvery white ponies. A coachman and a footman in silver livery
attended Dorothy, and before she knew it she was sitting in the
beautiful chariot driving over silvery roads.
She felt so happy that she wanted to sing, but just then the chariot
stopped at the entrance to the silver castle and Dorothy jumped out and
walked up to the beautiful door.
When she was inside a scene of fairy splendor presented itself to her
astonished eyes. Beautiful ladies--each one a Princess--were dancing
with brave, handsome men,--each one a Prince, and the music was just
like sweet bells, all ringing in tune.
Dorothy stood a minute and then the bravest Prince in the room came up
to her and said:
“I am Prince Jingle. May I have the pleasure of dancing with the most
beautiful guest in my castle?”
Dorothy took his arm with one of her most winning smiles, and the next
minute she was dancing around the room with the Prince.
“It’s lovely,” thought Dorothy. “If only Ray could see me now I don’t
think he would run off and leave me.”
“I don’t think he would either,” said the beautiful Prince.
“O,” said Dorothy surprised, “I was only thinking--I didn’t speak, you
know.”
“I know you didn’t speak in words,” answered the Prince, “but your face
spoke.”
“I didn’t know I could speak with my face,” cried Dorothy, smiling to
herself, and she thought, “I don’t believe I can, either.”
“O, yes, you can,” said the Prince, with a merry laugh, and Dorothy
blushed to think that he knew just what she thought.
“I wonder how he can tell what is in my mind,” thought Dorothy, but she
said nothing.
“It’s the easiest thing in the world to tell what is in a little girl’s
mind,” said the Prince, “you can see it in her face, I tell you.”
“Will you please tell me _how_?” asked Dorothy, who was very much
surprised to find that the Prince seemed to know exactly what she was
thinking about all the time.
They stopped dancing and the Prince said:
“A little girl’s face is a mirror and shows all her thoughts.”
“I don’t quite understand,” replied Dorothy; “do you mean that you can
tell what kind of little girls we are, by our faces?”
“That is just what I mean,” answered Prince Jingle. “Come with me and
I’ll prove it to you.”
Dorothy followed the Prince down the long hall until he stopped at a
door that opened into a road.
“Must you go outside to prove it?” asked Dorothy, who was loath to
leave the beautiful castle.
“Yes, indeed,” said Prince Jingle; “we don’t have anything like that in
our castle.”
At last the Prince stopped in front of a large building. Over the
entrance it read in large letters
POUT & CO.
The Prince rang the bell and after waiting quite a long time, a little
girl came to the door. Before she opened her mouth to speak Dorothy
thought to herself, “O dear, what a cross little girl, she looks just
as if she were going to snap at you.”
“How do you do?” said the Prince politely. “Are your sisters at home?”
“Don’t know, find out for yourself.”
Whew! how she snapped it out and then disappeared.
“Didn’t you see it in her face before she spoke?” said the Prince
turning to Dorothy.
“Yes, every word of it,” replied Dorothy, and then she thought, “I
don’t want to look like _that_, so I must never be cross and snappy.”
They stepped inside, and the very first thing they saw was a little
girl standing near a table with her head down.
She looked up a moment, and Dorothy thought how pretty she would have
been, if she didn’t look so sulky.
“Good morning, Miss Sulk,” said the Prince, but she shrugged her
shoulders, hung her head lower, and never answered.
“Do come away,” cried Dorothy, and in her mind she said, “I never want
to be like that, so I must _never, never_ sulk.”
“Just a minute,” said the Prince, “that looks like Miss Temper in the
garden, we must see her.”
Dorothy followed the Prince into the garden, where a girl was crying
and stamping her feet.
“Oh, such a face,” thought Dorothy, while the Prince said:
“What is the matter, Miss Temper, can I help you?”
“No! no! no!” roared the ugly little girl, and she stamped harder than
ever. Dorothy felt ashamed to think that any little girl could act so
badly, and look so ugly.
She wanted to run away from the dreadful sight, and she cried:
“Goodness! Gracious! I hope that I will never give way to temper, for
it would be _awful_ to look like that.”
“Have you seen enough?” asked the Prince.
“Yes indeed, quite enough,” replied Dorothy. “I never knew that little
girls’ faces showed everything.”
“It is too true,” said Prince Jingle, “when they are cross, and have
unkind thoughts, they look ugly, and nobody cares to have them around,
but when they are good and kind, obedient and happy, their faces are so
beautiful, that every one likes to see them.”
Prince Jingle took Dorothy’s hand, and they hurried back to the castle,
and in a few minutes he brought Dorothy a dish of silvery ice-cream and
a piece of silver cake.
Just then Ray appeared with a beautiful princess, and they came over to
Dorothy and sat down. The Prince got some cream and cake for them, and
Ray exclaimed:
“O Dorothy, I’ve been to see such an ugly boy. His name was Temper, and
he had two brothers, Sulk and Pout.”
“I saw their sisters,” said Dorothy. “Weren’t they homely?”
“Yes, they were,” said Ray eating the last delicious mouthful of his
ice-cream.
“I don’t want to hurry you, my dears,” said Prince Jingle; “but don’t
you have to catch a train or something?”
“Of course,” answered Ray, “we have to catch a bell.”
Then the children thanked Prince Jingle and hurried out of the castle,
where they found Fairy Tinkle waiting for them, with the little silver
bell.
In a few minutes they were swinging through the air, holding on to the
tongue of the bell. All at once, so quick that you could not see it
done, they found themselves safe in papa’s study sitting in the big
leather chair.
The fairy bell was in its old place on the desk, but Fairy Tinkle had
disappeared.