_Of the Ways that Fairies Write, and the Proper Way to Drink in the
Song of the Wood._
When morning works was done, then I did go calling on the folks that
wear sun-bonnets. I thought I better keep my sun-bonnet on my head,
being as I was going calling on sun-bonnet folks. First I went to
the garden to visit the pea family. I shook hands all down the row
and back up the other row. Then I went to call on their neighbors
the beans. And I saw a rabbit in the garden near unto the cabbages.
I went a little nearer. I went to see who it was. It was Madame
Lapine. She is a gentle woman and her ways are quiet ways, and she
does have a fondness for bits of apple. Whenever I do have an apple
I do save bits for her. Too, she likes cabbage, and I have showed
her the way into the garden to get it when I am not there to get it
for her.
To-day, after I did have talks with most all the folks in the garden
and after, I did tell them about this day being the crowning day of
Louis XIV in 1654 and the going-away day of Robert de Bruce in 1329;
then I did go out across the fields to have talks with Aphrodite
and Solomon Grundy and Michael Angelo Sanzio Raphael. Then it was I
saw the chore boy near unto the barn. He had a long stick. He was
knocking down the homes of the swallows. There were broken cradles on
the ground, and there were grown-up swallows about with distresses
in their flying. That did make me to have so sad feels. I did tell
him how dear are swallows, but he would have no listens.
Afterwards I did go goes to the house of Sadie McKibben. As I did
go along I did have seeing of a little thing in the road ahead. It
was a very little thing and it made little moves. They were only
flutterings. It went not away from where it was. I did go in a hurry
on. When I was come to it, I did have seeing it was a little bird. It
was a little bird that was hurt by the step of a cow. I have thinks
it was making a try to make a go across the road. I cuddled it up
and I felt feels in my apron pocket and there was some mentholatum.
And I give it some applys and we went to the hospital. And I put it
there on moss in a little soap-box room where nothing can come and
bring it more hurts. And it did have likes for the water I gave it
to drink in a thimble, and more likes it did have for the food I
gave it to eat. I named it William Makepeace Thackeray.
Then I did go goes on to the house of Sadie McKibben, and Brave
Horatius and Lars Porsena of Clusium went goes with me. Lars Porsena
of Clusium did ride part ways on the back of Brave Horatius. When we
was come to the house of Sadie McKibben, she was having troubles.
Just when she did have her clothes all hung out, then the clothes-line
did break and they all had falls on the ground. While she did gather
them up, she did have talks to herself. She did say, “’Tis a folly
to fret; grief’s no comfort.” When her bread gets burns in the oven
and the chickens bother on the porch and the clothes boil over on
the stove and everything seems to go wrong, Sadie McKibben has a
way of saying, “’Tis a folly to fret; grief’s no comfort.”
While she was giving more wash-outs to them clothes that did have a
fall while the clothes-line did break, she did sing. She sings on
days when sunshine is. She sings on days when rain is. Sadie McKibben
always sings before the summer rain as does the robin.
To-day, when she did have them clothes part hung on the line again,
then it was the man that wears gray neckties did come by on his way
to the mill town. He had asks if there was anythings she was having
needs of that he could bring back. And she did say bacon and some
soda and some more things what she had needs of for to cook with.
While she told him, he did write it down. I breathed a big breathe
when I did see him write it down, for he does write in the way that
the fairies write. I said, “Oh!” He did turn himself around. He did
say, “What is it, little one?” And I did tell him all in one breath. I
did tell him, “Oh, it’s that you write in the way the fairies write
that do put things for me by the old log where the moss-box is.”
Then he did smile and he looked a long look out the door. I have
thinks he was thinking of the long-ago time when the fairies did
teach him to write their way. When he did start to go, I heard him
say to Sadie McKibben, “I guess I will have to change my writing.” I
most slipped off the chair I was setting on the edge of. I had feels
I better speak to him about it. I had feels of the sorry feels the
fairies would feel when they had knowing he was not going to write
in the way they did teach him to write. When he did tell me good-bye
I did say, “Please don’t change your writing because you write the
way the fairies do. I have thinks the way they write is lovely.”
And he did smile his gentle smile. Then I did tell him how sorry I
knew the fairies would feel if he wrote not on in their way. Then he
did say he guessed it would be a pretty hard thing--trying to write
another way from what the fairies did teach him to write. I have
thinks it would so be. And to-night in my prayers I will thank God
the fairies did teach the man that wears gray neckties and is kind
to mice to write in their way. It is a very beautiful way. Some of
the letters are like ripples on the water. I have longings to write
as the fairies write.
First thing I did do on the morning of to-day was to go to prayers
in the cathedral. When I was come again to the house we live in, I
did eat my breakfast. For breakfast I do eat a bowl of bread and
milk. Then I did give the back porch a sweep-off. That made its
appears better. Then I did go to feed the chickens, and after that
I did go to feed the folks in the nursery.
The caterpillars do eat so much. They do get hungry feels inside
them most often. When I did have them well fed on this morning, I
did make tries to get some of them into their christening robes
so that they can be christened before they do grow more old, and
before they do grow too big to wear their little christening robes.
The matter of making christening robes for caterpillars, it is not
a difficult one. The difficulty is to get a frisky caterpillar to
keep still while one is putting on his christening robe. And then
it is a problem to keep it on after one does get it on. I do have
much troubles with caterpillars crawling out of their christening
robes after I do get them on.
Before I did get five caterpillars into their christening robes I did
hear the mamma calling. She did have needs of me. I ran a quick run
to the house. When I did walk in the door, I did hold up my dress.
Now the mamma makes me raise up my dress when I come into the house
so she can get a good look at my underskirt all around. She does
it to see if I have any animals about me in the pockets I pin on
my underskirts. The mamma objects to my bringing animals into the
house. In the days of now I am real careful not to be bringing in
my friends in these pockets when the mamma is at home. This morning
she did look satisfaction looks when she saw not an animal in the
pockets I have pinned onto my underskirt.
When I was walked in she did send me again to get wood. She did want
the wood-box filled with wood. Sometimes it takes an awful long
time to fill the wood-box. The longest time is when I am in a hurry
to go on exploration trips. While I did pile the wood in, I did
whisper my feels about it all to Felix Mendelssohn, that was hiding
up my sleeve. Then the mamma said if I was born her child, I would
n’t have had this longing to go on exploration trips. Then she did
send me to pick elderberries. She did tell me to scoot up the tree
in a hurry. I did so. When I was up in the tree, I did not hurry so
to get the berries. I took looks about. I looked to the divides in
the road and away to the blue hills. Then I sat on another limb and
looked looks more near. I did watch the little pond. In the pond is
a lily. The lily is a yellow lily and it floats upon the water. It
does float upon the water like a little sky-star. Maybe it was a
little one that did have longings to cuddle in among the raindrops
that do come together in the pond. I wonder how it came to be. I
would like to know.
In the pasture by the pond I did see a mother sheep. I think it
must be nice to be a sheep--to be a mother sheep and have a little
lamb. Children are such a blessing. When I did have my pail half
full of berries, I did stop to pick out names for the twins I am
going to have when I grow up. I did pick out sixteen names and then,
being as I could not make decides between them, I did have decides
to pick out names for them some other day. And I did begin at once
to get that pail all full of elderberries.
When that was come to pass, I set the pail on a little stump. Brave
Horatius stayed to guard it, and I did go the way that leads to the
hill-top. I did have longings to dance. Most every day I do dance.
I dance with the leaves and the grass. I feel thrills from my toes
to my curls. I feel like a bird sometimes. Then I spread my arms for
wings. And I go my way from stump to stump and on adown the hill.
Sometimes I am a demoiselle flitting near unto the water. Then I
nod unto the willows and they nod unto me. They wave their arms and
I wave mine. They wiggle their toes in the water a bit and I do so
too. And every time we wiggle our toes we do drink into our souls
the song of the brook--the glad song it is always singing. And the
joy-song does sing on in our hearts. So did it to-day. And afterwards
when I did go to get my pail of elderberries, they were gone. They
were gone only a little way. Brave Horatius did have feelings those
elderberries ought to be going to the house we live in. So he did
make starts with them. When I did catch up with him he did have the
pail-handle in his mouth. He was going in a slow way. And only a few
elderberries did spill out. I have thinks they did roll out when he
took the bucket off the stump.