Now all ye tearful children, come and listen while I tell
About the little fairy folk, and what to them befell;
And how three little fairies sat them down, one summer day,
And cried among the grasses till the others flew away.
They flew away bewildered, for it gave them such a fright
To see the fairies crying, with the jolly sun in sight:
And so they left them all alone, and there they sat and cried
Six little streams of fairy tears, that trickled side by side.
And looking down, the laughing sun among the drops did pass,
And he laid a little rainbow beside them on the grass.
Then quickly rose the fairies, and clapped their gleeful hands--
"We've found the brightest skipping-rope in all the fairy lands."
And there they jumped their tears away, and jumped their dimples in,
And jumped until their laughter came--a tinkling, fairy din.
What! you say you don't believe it, you saucy little elf?
Then run and get your skipping-rope, and try it for yourself.
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