[Illustration: The Elfin Queen]
"Who are you? What are you? Where are you?" cried Jim, hardly knowing
whether to be angry, amused, or frightened.
"You ask a good many questions at once, don't you?" said the silvery
voice. "_Who_ am I? _What_ am I? _Where_ am I? Eh! I'm the Queen of
the Elfs," said her tiny majesty, "and if you look sharply you'll see
where I am."
Just then a moonbeam streaming through the trees overhead fell across
his path, and, dancing up and down on it, he saw the tiny elfin
queen,--a lovely little creature with long, bright, wavy hair, and
glittering garments fluttering in the breeze, wings like a butterfly,
a mischievous smile on her face, and in her hand a wee wand tipped
with a star. But the brightest thing about her was the twinkle that
played hide-and-seek in her eye.
Nimble Jim took off his hat and made a low bow.
"Now, what is all this about?--and why are you neglecting your work,
sir?" demanded she, sternly.
Jim trembled beneath her royal gaze, little as she was, and replied
humbly:
"May it please your majesty, I wish I'd some melon-seeds that'd grow
like magic. I am dead tired of being nothin' but a cobbler. I want
to be a melon-merchant, and raise the finest, largest melons ever
seen,--supply the whole kingdom with them, and grow to be as rich as
the king himself."
"Oh, you do, do you?" she answered, laughing her merry little laugh,
and capering up and down the moonbeam. "Oh! quite a modest youth!
Well, I'll make a bargain with you; and if you will do something for
me, you shall have your wish," said the queen.
Nimble Jim was about to pour out his gratitude, when she interrupted
him, saying: "Now, Nimble Jim, listen to me. Your wish is a foolish
one, and I warn you that if you gain it you will be sorry. Why will
you not be content as you are?"
"Your majesty," replied the obstinate youth. "I _cannot_ be content as
I am."
"Well, since you insist on having your own way, we'll make our
bargain. Here,"--and, sitting down on the moonbeam, she pulled off a
shoe,--"here, sir, I want you to mend my shoe. I tripped just now on
a rough place in this moonbeam. Mend the rip; show me you are a good
cobbler, and I promise that you shall have your wish."
"But, your majesty," began Nimble Jim, taking the shoe, which was no
bigger than a bean, "I can't sew such a little shoe; my fingers are
----"
"There, there! Stop! I'm a queen, and people don't say 'can't' or
'wont' to me, sir," interrupted her majesty, with much dignity. "Take
the shoe, and find a way to mend it. I will come for it to-morrow
night at this same place and hour," and off she went up the moonbeam,
half skipping, half flying, while Jim stood stupidly staring until
she had entirely disappeared. Then he began, slowly: "Well,--I--never
--in--all--my--life--saw--such--a----"
He said no more, but went in, and sat up all night, thinking how and
where he could find needle and thread fine enough to do such a piece
of cobbling as this. About dawn a thought struck him. His mother
thought he had gone crazy when she saw him chasing bees and pulling
down spider-webs. Hours and hours he worked, and though his fingers
were big, they were nimble, like his name; so, by and by, with a
needle made of a bee's sting and thread drawn from a spider-web, he
sewed up the rip in her fairy majesty's dainty shoe.
He hardly could wait for the hour of meeting, but went into the
garden, with the shoe in his hand, long before the time. At length,
the queen came sliding down the moonbeam, laughing and singing:
"Hello, Nimble Jim! How are your melons?"
But he was not angry now; he only laughed respectfully, made a
profound bow, and said:
"May it please your majesty, I have mended your majesty's shoe."
The merry little queen took it from him, looked at it closely, saying
to herself: "Humph! I didn't think he could, but he did,"--and,
turning to Jim, said, much more graciously than before: "I suppose you
think yourself quite a cobbler; and so you are--for a mortal. Since
you have done your work so well, I will do as I said. Now," she
continued, handing him a little package about as big as a baby's
thumb, "plant these melon-seeds, and----"
"Are these little things melon seeds? They look too small,"
interrupted Jim,--for he had made no ceremony, even in the queen's
presence, about peeping into the package,--and it must be confessed
that they were very small indeed.
"Certainly they are, or I would not tell you so. They are the
magic melons of fairy-land. As I was about to say when you rudely
interrupted, plant----"
"I beg your pardon, your majes----"
[Illustration: "BEFORE NIMBLE JIM COULD GET BACK TO THE HOUSE, THE
YARD WAS FULL OF MELON-VINE."]
"_Will_ you keep still? Was there _ever_ such a chatterbox!" said
she. "I say, plant these melon-seeds to-morrow at sunrise, and you
will have your wish, foolish boy." And, while Jim was thinking of
melons and wealth, she skipped away up the moonbeam, singing:
"Nimble Jim is quite demented,--
Wants to be a melon-king!
Silly mortal! not contented
With the riches home-joys bring!
Oh! ho!
Oh! ho!
He will be sorry to-morrow;
To-morrow will bring only sorrow."
But Nimble Jim heeded her not. This night also he could not close his
eyes, and in the early morning he hastened to tell his mother their
good fortune. She looked grave, and said:
"Ah, my lad! I'd rather you minded the cobbler's bench, nor trafficked
with fairies. I fear me they're uncanny folks to deal with."
"Never fear, mother; we'll be rich yet, and I'll make you a queen
yourself, and then you need spin no more," said Jim, wild with hope
and excitement.
"I don't mind the spinnin', my boy. I'd rather be----".
Jim heard no more, for he dashed off at once to the garden to plant
his precious seeds just at sunrise. With furious energy, he tore up
all his old vines, flung them over the fence, and, after that, spaded
up the melon-bed with the greatest care. Then he opened the paper and
poured the magical seeds into his hand.
There were only _four_--four wee seeds, each no bigger than a pin's
head! His first impulse was to fling them away in wrath, for he
thought such little things couldn't possibly make as big a fortune as
he wanted. But then he reflected, "Fairies are little, so I suppose
their seeds are little, too. I'll try them, anyhow." And with that he
put them in the ground and carefully covered them.
In an instant, the ground burst open in four places, and up shot four
sturdy melon-vines, that grew east, west, north, south!
Grew? No! they raced, they tore, they dashed through the country far
and wide! In no time, before Nimble Jim could get back to the house
door, the whole yard was full of melon-vine, and one great big melon,
bigger than the cottage itself, blocked the door-way.
[Illustration: THE MAGIC MELON OVERRUNS THE COUNTRY.]
"Oh! oh! oh!" roared Jim. "What _have_ I done? What _shall_ I do?" And
with his spade he cut a hole through the melon. It took him a whole
hour, and when he got into the house he found that his poor mother had
fainted from fright.
And all the time the vine and melons kept growing--east, west, north,
south.
Nimble Jim was frantic!
But the vines didn't mind Jim. On they went, growing like mad, a mile
a minute, faster than any railroad train. The big arms filled up the
main roads; the smaller ones crammed themselves into the lanes and
by-paths, while the tendrils embraced the tall trees, the houses, and
the church steeples, and snarled up everything. The leaves grew
so large, thick and green that they covered the whole face of the
country, shutting out the sun from the fields so the crops couldn't
grow; and the whole kingdom became so dark from the awful shade of
Nimble Jim's magic melon-vine, that the people had to burn candles day
and night.
It grew like mad. On! on! Stem, branch, leaf, tendril, fruit--on, on
it went! The melons grew--great, round, smooth, rich, ripe, juicy
melons, as big as houses--at the cross-roads, on the roads, in the
fields, filling barn-yards and door-yards so people and cattle
couldn't pass, or go in or out, till they had eaten their way through
the melons, or got ladders and climbed over, or dug trenches and
crawled under! On, on it went, surrounding the king's palaces and
choking up his forts! Down, down it grew into the brooks and rivers,
and out into the king's harbors, where the tendrils seized and wound
about his ships of war riding at anchor, and climbed up the masts,
while melons grew on the decks till the vessels sank to the bottom!
It choked up and drank up all the rivers and lakes in the kingdom, or
dammed them up so the waters overflowed the land, drowning people and
cattle, and sweeping away houses and barns!
On, on it grew--melons, melons everywhere! Ruin and starvation stared
the nation in the face; while poor, poor Nimble Jim, hid within the
rind of the melon he had dug out, shivered, cried and bewailed his
folly.
"I'll be killed! I'll be killed! The people will murder me!" he
shrieked. But no one of them all save his mother knew he had had
anything to do with bringing on the dire calamity that had befallen
the kingdom.
Then some of the people proposed: "Let us go immediately to our king,
and ask him to make a law that the vine shall stop growing ere it ruin
us forever."
But when they had eaten and hewed their way to the palace, they found
the king had gone to count his soldiers; and while he was gone the
vine came galloping along, and an enormous melon grew and blocked up
the palace gate. So they had to help the king and his guards force
their way through to the hall of audience.
When they all were in, and the king had wiped the melon-juice off his
robes and crown, and was fairly seated on his throne, surrounded by
his guards and courtiers, the trumpets sounded, drums beat, banners
waved, and the people fell on their knees and said:
"O mighty king! We, thy liege subjects, have come to tell thee of the
ruin and desolation this fearful vine maketh in all thy great kingdom,
and to entreat thy majesty to enact a law forbidding it to grow any
more, and commanding it to wither away."
"Alas!" answered the troubled king, "what can I do? No law of mine can
stop this awful thing. It is an enchanted vine sent to torment us.
Hear me, my people! Proclaim it, ye my heralds! I pledge my kingly
word to give up my crown and kingdom, and change places with any one
of my subjects who will wither and instantly sweep away this direful
vine. I, your king, am as helpless as a child to stop it."
And the king, who was a good old man, shed tears for the misery of his
people, and commanded the queen and all the court to dress themselves
in mourning and fast night and day.
The people got home as best they could, and each fell to thinking how
he could stop the vine and so be king. Even Nimble Jim heard of this.
So, every night, he watched, hoping to see the elfin queen. At last
she came, as before, on her moonbeam footpath, saying: "Hello, Nimble
Jim! How are your melons by this time?"
But he was in no mood to be facetious now. He only said, humbly:
"May it please your majesty, what can I do to stop the growth of this
horrible vine, and instantly sweep it from the face of the earth? Help
me, I beg your gracious majesty!"--and Jim knelt before her.
"Ha, ha! Nimble Jim don't seem to like melons! I told you you'd be
sorry," laughed the little elfin queen. "I suppose you still want
to be as rich as the king? Or perhaps you would like to be the king
himself?" said she, tauntingly.
"Of course I would, your majesty," said Jim, "if the vine can only be
stopped."
"You are a very good cobbler, Nimble Jim," she answered, "and since
you mended my shoe so nicely, and as the king has promised to exchange
with any one who will wither and destroy the vine, and as you might as
well be king as another (and as you need a good lesson," said she to
herself), "I give you the means to do it all!"
And the tiny queen pulled off the mended shoe, and cried: "Here, you
silly boy! Take this and run to the palace. Once there, you need touch
but a tendril with this magic shoe, and the vine will wither and
disappear, and the crown and kingdom will be yours. I wish you joy of
both. Good-bye! You will learn contentment yet, poor Jim, I hope," she
added, as he ran out of hearing, with the precious little shoe in his
hand.
Leaving his poor mother behind, for he had forgotten all about her
during these days, Jim set off for the palace. It was a long, hard
journey, on account of the melon-vines, that not only blocked the
road, but even chased him. Many a narrow escape had he from being
crushed to death in the embrace of some young tendril that would shoot
out, wriggling and writhing toward him like a great green serpent.
At length, he arrived at the palace gate, which in old times was
marble, but now was only a hole that had been cut through a melon.
"Halt! Who goes there!" shouted a sentinel, thrusting his spear in
front of Jim's panting breast.
"It's only Nimble Jim, the Cobbler. I want to see the king," said the
boy.
"Be off, you fellow!" shouted the sentry. "Our noble king don't
hob-nob with cobblers! Be off, I say, or----" And he shook his spear
at our hero ominously.
"Hold, there!" shouted the king himself, straining out of a window to
look between the melon-leaves. "Hold, I say! What do you want, young
cobbler?"
"I want your crown and kingdom, sire," boldly answered Jim. "I've
heard of the new law, and I'll stop the melon-vine."
"Let him pass, guards," shouted the king; "and send him hither."
A little page dressed in black led Jim to the throne-room. The king
and his court no longer blazed in gold and jewels. Black covered
everybody and everything, even the golden throne itself, and grief and
dismay were on all faces.
Then said the king, in a hollow tone: "What know you of this vine?
Speak!"
And Jim, tremblingly, told the whole story.
"Wicked boy!" groaned the king. "You well deserve punishment for the
ruin you have brought on the land. But I have passed my royal word,
and you shall try to destroy the vine. If you succeed, bad as you are,
you then will be the king and I the cobbler. But if you fail, you
shall be put where you shall have nothing but melons to eat for the
rest of your days. Guards, take him away!"
That night, before the king and queen and all the assembled court,
when the moon was fairly risen, Nimble Jim touched with the toe of the
magic shoe the end of a tendril that was running rapidly up a tower.
In an instant, every vestige of the vine vanished throughout all the
palace grounds; and in the morning the people all over the country
shouted for joy and cried with one voice: "Let us all go up to the
coronation, for to-day we have a new king who has delivered us from
the horrible vine."
And on they came, in hordes, till the capital was full and the country
about the palace was one vast camp, while throughout the kingdom not a
trace of the vine was to be seen.
Then the nobles and prelates prepared for the coronation. It was
magnificent. They girt Jim with the sword of state, clothed him in the
imperial robes, placed the scepter in his hand, and, as the golden
crown descended upon his head, all the people shouted:
"Hail, King Nimblejimble, our deliverer! Long live the king!"
[Illustration: MAKING AN ENTRANCE FOR THE KING THROUGH THE MELON IN
FRONT OF THE PALACE GATE.]
And the silly boy was happy.
Meanwhile, the poor, faithful old king, who cheerfully had given up
all for his people, was hammering and stitching and digging away on
Jim's cobbler-bench off in the village; and Jim's mother, whom the
naughty boy, in his strange elevation, had forgotten all about,
tenderly cared for the humbled old monarch.
Before long, the elfin queen saw how patient the old king and Jim's
mother were, and how badly Nimble Jim was behaving now he was king,
for he was given up to all sorts of wickedness and tyranny, was fast
becoming hated by every one, and himself was beginning to see that he
was not nearly so happy as he had been while he was a cobbler.
Jim was really good at heart, only his unreasonable discontent with
his lot had got him into all this misery. At last, he began to repent,
and, one moonlight night when he was walking alone on the palace
terrace, he said:
"I wish I could see that little elfin queen, and I would ask her to
let me go back home again."
"Well, here I am!" said the silvery voice; and, sitting on a moonbeam
beside him, there she was. "Tired of being king, Jim?" she asked.
"Yes, your majesty, indeed I am," he replied.
"Want any more melons, Jim?" said she, laughing.
"No, no, no!" groaned Jim. "No more!"
"How is your mother, Jim?" asked her majesty.
"Alas! I don't know,"--and he hung his head in shame.
"Are you ready to go and see her, Jim?" she asked, gently. "And will
you be contented now?"
"Yes, yes!" was his eager reply.
Now, the old king had been mending shoes all day, and was at this
moment resting in the cottage porch, when, suddenly, he was whisked
away on a cloud and landed in his palace again. His crown was popped
on his head, and the scepter thrust in his hand, while his old
chamberlain tenderly tucked him up in bed.
At the same instant, another cloud brought back Nimble Jim to his
bench and his faithful mother, who at once made him some oat-meal
porridge without a murmur or word of reproach.
"There!" said the elfin queen to herself. "That boy is cured of his
silly notions."
"Mother, I think I don't care much for melons. I wont plant any more,"
said Jim next morning.
"I don't like 'em myself, lad," said the mother. "I'd a deal rather
you'd stick to the bench, like your auld father."
"I will, mother dear," answered Nimble Jim. And he is mending shoes
there to this day, as happy as happy can be.
* * * * *
[Illustration]
"Oh! I'm my mamma's lady-girl
And I must sit quite still;
It would not do to jump and whirl,
And get my hair all out of curl,
And rumple up my frill.
No, I'm my mamma's lady-girl,
So I must sit quite still."
* * * * *