STRANGE PLAYFELLOWS.
Violet's birthday was very near; but she had forgotten all about it,
birthdays came so far apart in her happy life. From morning until
evening seemed long enough for a year to her; she found so much work to
do, and such beautiful walks to take, and had so many playfellows, to
say nothing of the two good fairies that always watched over and
followed her.
Perhaps you wonder how the little girl found friends, living as she did
away out in a lonesome field among the mountains. She could have
described her pets to you better than I can, because the fairy Love
dressed them up for her in jewels and rainbows, while to others they
were only toads, and snakes, and flies, and trees, and brooks, and
clouds.
Funny playfellows, you will think. There was one good thing about
them--they never quarrelled or used bad words; and then it was sport for
Violet, after her work was finished, to scamper away with them.
But if she ran ever so fast, the fairy Love always kept up with her; and
it is well she did; for if she had staid at home, or fallen into a pit
on the way, all Violet's dear playfellows would have changed in an
instant--have grown ugly and coarse, and, what is worse, she would have
trodden on them and crushed their wings--by mistake, I hope, for she
never had been so wicked; and Violet herself would have changed into a
little peevish girl, with a sickly face and loose yellow hair, and
wearing a dress so coarse and rough you would not give it to a beggar
child.
But Violet kept the charm locked safe in her heart, and therefore,
wander wherever she would, the fairies had to follow. They were up with
her early in summer mornings, for she loved dearly to watch the sun
rise. She would climb a hill, at the foot of which Reuben's hut was
built, and all alone up there, close, she thought, to the soft, rosy
sky, would wait and watch, and at last clap her little hands for joy
when the great golden sun came in sight above the woods. She would stand
on tiptoe, and laugh aloud when she saw the shadows fly away, like
frightened birds, before the sunshine, which flooded all the valley now,
and which lay upon the beautiful wreaths of mist that went curling up to
meet it from the ponds and brooks, brightening them to dazzling
whiteness--so like the clouds in heaven that Violet half believed the
earth about her was beautiful as that far-off blue sky.
So it would be if every little girl and boy kept two good fairies, like
Love and Contentment, flying about with them.
How the grass glittered with dew! how the slender wild flowers were
bowed down with its weight!--pearl and diamond beads strung all along
the stems, and edging every petal. Children who keep in bed until eight
o'clock know very little about the beauty of summer mornings. Perhaps,
even if they did arise in time, they would be afraid of wetting their
shoes in the grass; but Violet was very poor, you know, and never wore a
shoe in her life, and lived out of doors so much that she was not in the
least delicate.
As soon as the sunshine had crept near their nests among the green
boughs of the wood, all the wild birds began to flutter about and sing
such loud, clear, sweet songs that Violet could not help joining the
chorus; and any one else would have known that fairies Love and
Contentment were singing loudest of all. Violet heard their music, but
supposed it came from the birds. How she wanted to fly away with them,
up among the beautiful rosy clouds! but Love whispered in her ear,--
"Won't your mother want you, little girl, at home? Cannot you help her
there?" and just then a bird fluttered away from a dew-wet bough,
dashing a whole shower of drops in Violet's face. Instead of being
angry, she laughed, and shouted,--
"Do it again, bird. If I can't fly away with you, you may wash my face
before you go. Do it again."
But the bird was soon out of sight among the clouds, and Violet, with
these pearly dewdrops clustering in her golden hair, went dancing down
the hill.