And the boy looked around in wonderment, amazed, and saw that the whole
great plain was full of teeming life which he had not before seen.
Fairies and elves peeped from every flower, gnomes and earthmen worked
and played and danced among the boulders. And where before was silence
but for the rustling of the leaves in the breeze, there rose a murmur of
many voices, like the humming of bees in the sunshine. The boy listened
and at once he knew what the flowers were whispering.
"There is a saying that the flax-people are being used for a mighty
work," said one little blue fairy to another.
"I heard a bee spreading the news," said another. "All the flax-people
are asked to give their dresses to help in clearing the plain for a
palace and a garden where kings may dwell--not kings of earth and of
little cities, but kings of wisdom whom nature loves to obey, and we
among her children."
"Body after body have I grown," said the other. "I have struggled and
striven to grow useful in this glorious brotherhood of nature, and my
only success seems to be that I have a pretty head. It is good to be
beautiful, perhaps, but I have always thought that I would sacrifice my
beauty for a chance of sharing in noble deeds."
A butterfly that had stopped to listen now spoke to her:
"You have waited and now you will have your reward. For surely your
body will be taken to help in the work that is going forward. The
flax-people have indeed lived to good purpose."
"They certainly do not seem afraid to die," said the boy to himself.
And as if in answer to his whispered thought the little flax-fairy said:
"Of course we are not afraid! I have been told that there are giants of
men who really think that when they leave their worn-out stalks--bodies
they call them--behind, they live no more, or at least are not sure what
becomes of themselves. But it cannot be true--it must be a fairy story!"
laughed the little elf. "They must know, as we know, that all things
sleep awhile and then take new bodies like dresses woven while they
worked in their last awaking which men call life. And then one day we
know that we shall have woven dresses so fine that we shall be free to
leave them as the butterfly leaves his dull-hued robes and spreads his
bright wings for flight into the grand unknown which we all long to
know."
"But _how_ do you know that these things are so?" asked the boy.
"How do I know that I am alive?" answered the flax-fairy in a murmur.
Fainter grew the voices and the vision faded from the boy's sight.
He knew not how long it was he stayed there, but after awhile he awoke
with a start to find that Eline was no longer with him, and that he had
slept among the flax in the sunshine.