Company, but duties of state have prevented. I am delighted with Mount
Fern!
“Your home is a bower; your furnishings dainty and elegant; and your
fare is delicious.
“Tomorrow we’ll visit the gardens. This evening we’ll spend in quiet
conversing, in puzzles and riddles, conundrums and puns. I love a good
joke when I’m tired of affairs of the kingdom.”
Captain Featherweight, bowing low, replied: “Your Majesty’s wish is our
pleasure.”
Then the King, looking up at the ceiling, was struck by the soft glow
of the filigree lanterns, and asked the Captain what lighting he used.
Bowing low, the Captain replied: “The light of the glowworm.”
The King was delighted and said that he himself had never once thought
of glowworms, but had always used firefly lanterns. Then he called his
secretary and told him to make a note of the lighting of Mount Fern.
After that he called his musicians and told them to set the lighting of
Mount Fern to music, and this was the song that they sang:
“Sparkle, burnished lanterns,
Silver lanterns!
What a lot of glowworms,
Great and small;
How your lights are shedding
Forth their radiance,
Over King and Captain--
And elves all!”
After the music the King called Iris-Wing and asked him what flowers he
grew in the garden.
“Noble King,” said the flower-elf, “there are pansies, narcissi and
roses, rosemary and rue, and daffodils, lilies and daisies, and violets
blue.”
“That is well,” said the King. “Is that all?”
“Not at all,” said the elf.
But just here Touchstone came forward and bowed down before the King
and said: “Your Highness, may I be permitted to speak?”
“You may,” said the King.
“Noble King, there are blondes and brunettes in the garden.”
“What! Blondes and brunettes, do you say?”
“Yes, your Highness,” said Touchstone “the brunette is Black-eyed
Susan, and Blue-eyed Mary’s the blonde.”
“Ha! Ha!” laughed the King. “I see,” said he, “and what other strange
plants do you grow?”
“What is seen on the western sky at sunset,” answered Touchstone.
“And what is that?” asked the King.
“Golden-Glow,” said the elf.
“That is bright,” remarked the King, “and what else do you grow in your
garden?”
“We grow animals, too, in the garden!”
“What? Animals, too, in the garden!”
“Yes, your Highness,” said Touchstone, “we grow the Bear-berry, the
Tiger-Lily and the Dande-Lion!”
“How true!” laughed the King, “and what next?”
“A knave in church,” said the jester.
“Very many, I fear,” the King agreed. “But what is yours?”
“Why, Jack-in-the-Pulpit,” said he.
“Ha! Ha!” laughed the King, “you’ve done well, and now I am most
anxious to examine that wonderful garden of yours.”
“Will your Majesty go to the garden _now_?” asked the flower-elf.
“I will,” said the King.
Then Captain Featherweight and Iris-Wing escorted the King all
over the garden and grounds around Templeton Hall. And the King was
delighted, and gave the Captain and the flower-elf much praise.
“Yours is the best-kept garden I’ve seen in my travels,” said he, “and
as a reward for your diligence, interest, and skill, I’ll give _you_,
Iris-Wing, a girdle of gold.”
Now in Elfland a golden girdle is scarcely ever worn except by the
Captain of a Company. And to be presented with one was in itself a
great honor; but to be presented with a golden girdle by the _King_ was
a very great honor indeed!
Then the flower-elf bowed low to the King of the elves, and made
answer: “Your Highness, you honor me greatly.”
“Arise,” said the King, “you are worthy. I’ll have the girdle designed
by the Dwarfs of the Court, and you and the elves of Mount Fern will
come there to receive it one year from today.”
When they had made a tour of the flower garden they went into the
orchard; and they found that the woodpeckers, nut-hatches and
creepers had done their work thoroughly, for there was not a sign of a
caterpillar anywhere, nor the eggs of any insect.
The lawns too were just as well kept, for they were all smooth and
velvety, and not a weed could be found.
And the more he examined the grounds, the more pleased was the King,
and he constantly cried: “Captain Featherweight, I am delighted.”
As soon as he had returned to Mount Fern he said to the Captain: “Let
your elves be seated around me on the soft rose-petals so lavishly
strewn on the floor, as a carpet.”
Then he told them all how delighted he was with his visit to Mount
Fern; and how much he enjoyed the birds, the trees and the flowers in
Templeton Garden.
“And do not forget that a year from to-night you’re to come to the
Court of the King of the elves, where the flower-elf shall receive a
golden girdle for work well done in the garden.
“And all the other elves of Mount Fern shall receive a prize for work
well done in the Company.
“And--as this is the best-trained Company I have seen in my travels--I
shall give you, Captain Featherweight, an old and priceless Egyptian
amulet worth more than its weight in rubies.
“But now I must say good-night, for tomorrow I’m off to the woodlands.”
When the King had retired for the night, Captain Featherweight made a
motion to Slumber to go to the King of the elves, and help him dream
pleasant dreams.
Then Slumber sat by his bedside and helped him to dream this dream:
The King dreamed he sat by a running river that sparkled and shone in
the moonlight, as it rolled over the stones at the bottom in ripples
of gleaming silver. And on either side of the flowing river were the
softest, greenest, freshest moss-covered banks; while at a little
distance magnificent oaks and elms cast their beautiful shadows
beneath. And the birds sang in the tree-tops and carolled gaily with
health and happiness.
The air was cool and sweet; the flowers were bright and gay; all nature
was glad; and the King of the elves was happy.
And soon he saw coming toward him a chariot of roses drawn by
thirty-three humming-birds, three in a row.
The chariot stopped near the King, and one of the humming-birds bowed
and said:
“Noble King, your Empire is all the world; and we have come to take you
over land and sea; over high mountains, and rocky billows, to the land
of the rising sun. Arise and sit in our chariot.”
Then the King arose and sat in the chariot, and the birds flew ever
onward--past snow-clad peaks and tall cathedral spires, past green
fields and rustling corn--on, on, on through the bright clear air till
they came to the land of the rising sun.
And as soon as they entered there they heard the blowing of trumpets
and beating of drums, and a million voices cried:
“Hail, King of the elves! Noble King of the elves!”
And the sweetest flowers nodded their beautiful heads, and welcomed the
King and cried:
“Our noble protector, all hail!”
The next evening at starlight the King of the elves set off for the
woodlands. And Captain Featherweight and his Company escorted him and
his retinue far past the walls of Templeton Garden before they returned
to Mount Fern.
THE END
End of Project Gutenberg's The Elves of Mount Fern, by Katherine Creighton