THE ONE -FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES 
 
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.THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 AND OTHER STORIES 
 
 BY ALICE BROWN 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
COPYRIGHT, 191 1, BY ALICE BROWN 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published October zqti 
 
 ^?3 7 93 
 
 
TO 
 
 LANNIE, REGGIE 
 AND COMPTON 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 The One-Footed Fairy 1 
 
 Perizad and Perizada 15 
 
 Peter the Simple 32 
 
 The Cry Fairy 46 
 
 How Gladheart went to Court . . . .61 
 The Hippogriff and the Dragon ... 75 
 
 The Land without Common Folks . . .92 
 
 The Unambitious Queen 104 
 
 The Wonderful Tapestry 115 
 
 The Little Brown Hen 125 
 
 EOSEBLOOM AND ThORNBLOOM 137 
 
 The Gradual Fairy 152 
 
 The Green Goblin 163 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 The Queen was watching the new dance (p. 9) 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 Pekizad was lying on a mullein leaf ... 16 
 
 " We 're so big ! " the violets shouted all together 22 
 
 "Look, Perizad!" 30 
 
 He made the acquaintance of the fairy Drolla . 62 
 
 The shame and horror of it took away Glad- 
 heart's breath 74 
 
 Prince Venturesome and the old woman . . . 102 
 
 They proceeded to make their report to the 
 King 116 
 
 The court fool had been the only one to under- 
 stand 124 
 
 " i never heard such talk — no, not since i was 
 A pullet" 130 
 
 The road that led to her home 134 
 
 She blew on the paste for a moment .... 154 
 
a _ > > 
 
 > : > ;^ > 
 
 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 THERE was once a fairy who sat down while the 
 others were dancing. His name was Tippitin, and 
 he was a very happy fairy, though he never seemed 
 to know any of the things the other fairies knew. 
 Some fairies know how to paint flowers, and they 
 always do it by night when nobody is looking. One 
 has a tube of blue paint, and he squeezes it on the 
 larksx^urs, and another has a tube of red paint, and he 
 splashes it over the roses. The cleverest ones of all 
 know how to paint spots on the tiger-lilies and streaks 
 on the sweet-williams; and the very clever ones in- 
 deed can touch up a pansy's face so that you would 
 hardly think it was painted at all. You 'd say it just grew 
 so. These clever ones that have the streaky-spotty 
 work to do often use little brushes made out of the fur 
 of a cat's tail. One hair is enough for a fine brush, and 
 two at the most for a very heavy one ; but the cats hate 
 to have them pulled out. The fairies are very cautious 
 about doing it when no one knows : so they always take 
 the time when a cat is crying for something else. If a 
 cat gets her foot stepped on, or even if she is just wait- 
 
i\llA>>^'::\ THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 ing outside the door to be let in, and cries to mention 
 it, a dozen or two fairies are always waiting to pounce 
 on her and pull out as many tail-hairs as they can be- 
 fore the meow is finished. So that, although you can't 
 see them, you may be very sure every cat is followed 
 by at least two dozen fairy merchants, waiting to pull 
 hairs from her tail and sell them to the fairy painters. 
 I forgot to say that only the hairs from the tails of red 
 and pink cats will do at all: so it would be of no use 
 to make everyday cats cry, to help the fairies. Only 
 the red and pink ones will do. But Tij)pitin did not 
 know how to paint flowers. 
 
 Then some fairies know how to make round, clear 
 drops that you can see through. They make them out 
 of icicles. But Tippitin did not know that. 
 
 Some fairies know how to make beautiful bicycle 
 wheels out of nice round spiders' webs when they find 
 them. But Tippitin did not know that. 
 
 Some fairies can sweep up the kitchen for you, if they 
 like you, or make the butter come very fast, or keep 
 it from coming at all. But Tippitin did not know how 
 to do that. He only knew how to dance; and one night 
 when all the other fairies in that province of the king- 
 dom were dancing, he did not dance at all. He just 
 sat down on a pebble and drew a big leaf up over his 
 
THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 3 
 
 knees. The fairies were dancing very hard that night, 
 because they were practicing for a big Circle Dance 
 that would be held the next night, which was the night 
 of the full moon. And the Queen was coming. She 
 had been in Lapland for seven nights, — which is a 
 very long time when you are a fairy, — and she was 
 coming back to tell her people what she saw. She 
 really went up there to see if the patterns of snow- 
 crystals were any different from the patterns all over 
 the rest of the world, and if they were, to bring some 
 home. The fairies were wild to know that. Some 
 fairies can freeze snow-crystals. But Tippitin could n't 
 do that. 
 
 ]N'ow when they were dancing, they found there 
 was a gap in the ring, and they all stopped short. They 
 knew at once how it was. Some fairy was not there. 
 
 " Why, it 's Tippitin ! " said one ; and as this was 
 the night when they all said things together, — it is 
 the night before the night of the full moon, — they 
 all cried : " Why, it 's Tippitin ! " 
 
 "Tippitin, where are you?" called one; and then 
 the others all called: "Tippitin, where are you ?" 
 
 Tippitin only drew up the leaf a little higher over 
 his knees. 
 
 " Oh," said he gruffly, " I 'm here. Don't you see me ?'^ 
 
4 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 " He 's here," said all the fairies. " Don't we see 
 him? " 
 
 They crowded up about him, and climbed on the 
 leaves over his head and looked down at him; but 
 Ti23pitin only tucked the leaf in round his knees. 
 
 "Why don't you dance with us, Tippitin?" they 
 asked him. 
 
 Tippitin put out his lips, as if he felt very big, and 
 drew his shoulders up to his ears, as if he needn't 
 answer at all if he did n't want to. 
 
 " Oh," said he, " I 'm not dancing to-night." 
 
 "Oh," said the fairies, "he's not dancing to- 
 night ! " 
 
 Then they looked at one another and wondered 
 what they could say next, for it is very serious for a 
 fairy to say he won't dance. It is exactly as if a boy 
 or a girl should say, " I won't learn two times two, 
 or ' Catch ' ! " But they were all thinking the same 
 thing, and in a minute they all said it. 
 
 " But, Tippitin, you '11 have to dance. For this is 
 the new Circle Dance, and if you don't learn it to- 
 night you won't know it, and if you don't know it 
 you can't dance it to-morrow night when the Queen 
 is here, and what will you do then, Tippitin ? " 
 
 " Nothing," said Tippitin. 
 
THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 5 
 
 The fairies looked at one another, and their eyes 
 grew very large, and their mouths grew round. 
 
 " Nothing ! " they all said. " Tippitin will do no- 
 thing. That is what Tippitin will do — nothing ! " 
 
 Tippitin twisted up his face and squirmed about 
 on the pebble. 
 
 " You go away," said he, '^ and let me alone. I shan't 
 dance to-night, and I shan't dance to-morrow night." 
 
 " But what will the Queen say ? " they all cried. 
 
 " I don't know," said Tippitin. 
 
 Then they all looked at one another and said: " He 
 does n't know." And they were silent for a very long 
 time. 
 
 But after the very long time was over, they sud- 
 denly thought they must go and look at the Queen's 
 throne and see if it was all right and tight for her to 
 use. Now a great many things will do for a queen's 
 throne, — a tuft of moss or an opening rose or a clover 
 head — oh, there are a great many things ! But in 
 this particular province there was one tiny piece of 
 bark the Queen had taken a great liking to, for a 
 throne. The little borers-in-the-wood had carved it 
 beautifully for her, so that it was of a wonderful pat- 
 tern; and it had fallen from the tree in exactly the 
 right position, so that it was tilted up a little for a 
 
6 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 back, and tilted sidewise a little for the arms. The 
 Queen had said she never saw anywhere such a com- 
 fortable throne, and she believed she should find it so 
 if she lived to be ten million and ten. And then the fai- 
 ries all laughed until the owls brought their two yellow 
 lanterns to see what was the matter, for everybody 
 knows fairies never live to be ten million and ten. They 
 only live Forever. That was a great joke of the Queen's, 
 and it was repeated everywhere all over the kingdom, 
 and is being repeated now, — or it will be to-night, 
 if the moon is full. 
 
 Now somebody had discovered, not long before 
 this night when they were making ready for the Queen, 
 that her throne seemed a httle unsteady. A rabbit 
 running through the wood may have joggled it, or 
 some mortal, walking that way, may have hit it with 
 his foot, not knowing how important it was to let it 
 alone. And really it is surprising that mortals know 
 so very little about what is against the law in the 
 woods. There are ever so many things you can do if 
 you stop and take off your cap and say, " By your 
 leave," or even make a bow. But there is one thing 
 that must never be done. Things that are good wood- 
 citizens, like lady's-slipper, or fern, or anything that 
 blooms red, pink, blue, white, or yellow, must never 
 
THE OXE-FOOTED FAIRY 7 
 
 be pulled up by the roots. Sometimes you may take 
 them up very carefully and carry them to live some- 
 where else ; but you must be perfectly sure you know 
 beforehand that you are going to put them in the same 
 kind of place they are used to living in, and that they 
 are going to get water enough to drink. There are 
 very dreadful punishments for people who jduU up 
 things that bloom red, or pink, or blue, or white, or 
 yellow, and throw them down and leave them to die. 
 I will not tell you what the punishment is. If you 
 want to find out, you can look m the Fairy Code. 
 
 But to-night, when the fairies went to look at the 
 Queen's throne, they found it was as firm and solid 
 as a throne could be. They pushed at it, and pulled 
 at it, — of course they dared not sit in it, — and they 
 all breathed a great breath and said, " Well, that 's 
 all right," and they trooped away and began dancing 
 again. But Tippitin still sat with the leaf over his 
 knees, and he would not dance. 
 
 The next night, at exactly twelve o'clock, the owls 
 began to call, " Who ? Who ? " and the fairies all 
 answered, '^Her Majesty! her most lovely-dear-and- 
 glorious-splendid Majesty, the Queen ! " 
 
 And then all the woods waked up, and even the 
 little grasshopper and cricket things in fields beyond 
 
8 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 the woods, got out their musical instruments and piped 
 and jDiped, and the farmhouse dog called out, " Some- 
 thing 's up ! Hark! Hark! " But as he said it he went 
 into his kennel, just as far as he could, and sat there 
 with his tail tucked under him ; for every dog knows 
 what is going on in the woods at night and that he 'd 
 better say as little about it as possible. 
 
 The Queen had come straight through from Lap- 
 land by the Crystal Express, and her chariot had not 
 yet melted. It was the most beautiful carved ice you 
 ever saw, and the canopy over it was the loveliest 
 spun frost. It was drawn by six Northern Lights ; but 
 they had to be unharnessed at once, so that they could 
 go back, because they were needed to make an il- 
 lumination for a Labor Night parade of the Frosts 
 and Snows. The Queen had hired them on that con- 
 dition. So when they unharnessed themselves and 
 flashed off, she nodded at them very kindly, and then 
 she turned to her own people and told them to stand 
 where they were and see her chariot melt. It was a 
 little surprise she had arranged for them, because it 
 is very unusual to see an ice-chariot in the woods 
 on a warm summer night. This night was very warm 
 indeed, and the chariot melted fast; but quickly as 
 it went, a great many fairy artists stood by to draw 
 
THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 9 
 
 the forms of the snow-crystals, to see if they could 
 copy them next winter, and they really got a great 
 many ideas. 
 
 And when the chariot and the canopy were quite 
 gone, and there was only a tiny puddle of water left 
 where they had been, the Queen turned to her sub- 
 jects and said: " N'ow, to the dance ! " 
 
 So they joined hands and made a circle about the 
 Queen, and danced their new dance. And Tippitin 
 sat in a dark little corner under a leaf, and did not 
 dance at all. He had taken a thick shadow and wrapped 
 it about him, and if you had been there, even if you 
 could have seen the others, you could not have seen 
 him. Of course the Queen could have seen him, if 
 she had looked, because fairy eyes are the best in the 
 woods, and the Queen's eyes are the very best; but 
 she was watching the new dance to decide how she 
 liked it, and though there was still the gap in the 
 circle where Tippitin ought to have been, the fairies 
 made other gaps, from time to time, so that she 
 should think they were a part of the dance. For 
 they all loved Tippitin, and they were afraid she 
 would blame him. TThen the dance was over and 
 the Queen had said it was very nice indeed, though 
 not the nicest ever, they looked at one another and 
 
10 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 shut their mouths tight because they did not dare to 
 speak. 
 
 "It's a nice dance/' said the Queen again. 
 
 "It's a welcoming dance, your most lovely-dear- and- 
 glorious-splendid Majesty ," said all the fairies together, 
 trembling. (They were not afraid for themselves, be- 
 cause the Queen is kinder than you could ever think, 
 and no fairy fears her without reason, and just because 
 she is a queen. But they were afraid for Tippitin.) 
 " That is what it is called — the "Welcoming Dance." 
 
 The Queen put her hand to her chin and meditated. 
 She had caught that trick from the Ice-King in the 
 North, who had a beard. 
 
 " It 's a nice dance," she said, " but I miss something 
 in it. I don't know quite what it is, but it's something 
 very fast and sure, and always coming down in the right 
 place. Just take me to my throne. I shall be able to 
 think better there." 
 
 So the fairies formed themselves into a guard in 
 front and a following behind, and they took her to her 
 throne. They were very silent all the way, because 
 they knew they were leaving Tippitin sitting wrapped 
 in his thick shadow behind, and of course they knew, 
 too, just what the Queen missed in the dance. It was 
 Tippitin. 
 
THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 11 
 
 But when the Queen had seated herself on her 
 throne, they began to smile again, for she leaned back 
 against the carven wood and sighed a peaceful, happy 
 sigh, and said : " ISTow I am at home again. This old 
 throne is worth a million crystal palaces." (You see if 
 you are a queen you always think in millions. One 
 palace is altogether too few to talk about.) " ISTow," 
 said the Queen, " we '11 have the dance again." 
 
 So the fairies formed themselves before her into the 
 circle with the gap in it, and they danced and they 
 danced, and all the more gayly because they didn't 
 want her to find out anything was the matter. 
 
 But presently the Queen cried out: " Stop! Stop! " 
 
 And they had to stop, and the circle with the gap 
 in it was broken, and there were more than forty 
 gaps. 
 
 "I should like to be told," said the Queen, rather 
 grandly, "what is the matter with this throne !" 
 
 The fairies all trembled. 
 
 " Your Majesty," they said, "your most lovely-dear- 
 and-glorious-splendid Majesty," said they, "it is your 
 own favorite throne." 
 
 " So I thought," said the Queen. " But there 's some- 
 thing under it." 
 
 " Something under it ! " cried all the fairies. " What 
 
12 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 is it that is under it, your most lovely-dear-and-glori- 
 ous-splendid Majesty ? " 
 
 " That is what I should Hke to be told," said the 
 Queen. "It's something that wants to dance: for when 
 you were dancing, it kept knocking under my throne, 
 and when you stopped, it stopped, too. Lift up the 
 throne and see." 
 
 So the fairies crowded round the throne and tugged 
 at it with all their might; but they could not lift it. 
 Of course it would do no good to try to overturn it, 
 because a fairy throne is the one thing you can never 
 overturn. 
 
 "Well," said the Queen, putting her hand to her 
 chin, " try the dance again, and we '11 see ! " 
 
 So they formed their circle with the gap in it, and 
 this time the Queen began to sing : — 
 
 " Around and about ! 
 What is hidden, come out ! 
 What is veiled must be seen ! 
 'T is the will of the Queen ! " 
 
 And the throne began to tremble, and it settled a 
 little to one side, for there danced out of it the tiniest 
 foot you ever saw, and danced into the gap in the 
 circle, and danced and danced. 
 
THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 13 
 
 " Aha ! " cried the Queen. " ISTow the dance is ahnost 
 the nicest dance that ever was, but not quite. 
 
 " Slow little foot, slow ! slow ! 
 Go little foot, go ! go ! 
 Follow, fairies, follow me, 
 And we '11 see, we '11 see, we '11 see." 
 
 And the fairies stopped dancing, and the Httle foot 
 stoj^ped too, and it began to hop through the woods 
 so fast it was like the drop-drop-drop of water off a 
 leaf after a shower, and the Queen and the fairies fol- 
 lowed it. And what did the foot do but hop straight 
 up to Tippitin, sitting wrapped in his shadow; and 
 when Tippitin saw it, he cried out very loud, and threw 
 off the shadow, and the Queen and all the fairies saw 
 he had but one foot. And the little foot hopped up to 
 TipjDitin's ankle, and Tippitin bent down and screwed 
 it on, and there he stood on his two trim feet, and made 
 the Queen a beautiful low bow. 
 
 " Why, Tippitin ! " said the Queen. " Why, Tippi- 
 tin, what made you take your foot off ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty," said Tippitin, " I went to look at 
 your Majesty's throne one day to see if it was all right 
 and tight, and I found there was a little hollow under 
 it, and it made your Majesty's throne jiggle. And I 
 
14 THE ONE-FOOTED FAIRY 
 
 could n't find anything that exactly fitted, to fill up the 
 hollow, and my foot fitted, so I just rammed it in there, 
 — that's all." 
 
 The Queen and the fairies looked at him for as 
 much as seven minutes, and they were all deej)ly 
 affected. Then the Queen spoke. 
 
 " Henceforth," said she, " I appoint Tippitin to be 
 the very-much-to-be-honored keeper of my wood-bark 
 throne. And if he finds cause to think it needs repair, 
 he may call upon all the clever workmen of my king- 
 dom to set it right again. But his own feet are needed 
 for my service in the dancing that keeps my king- 
 dom standing while mortal thrones go down. Now, 
 fairies, to the dance ! " 
 
 And the fairies formed a circle with no gap in it, 
 because Tippitin was there, and they danced the dance 
 as it was first intended to be, with no gaps in it, and 
 when it was over, the Queen clapped her hands and 
 said: "Now I see what I missed out of the dance. It 
 was Tippitin ! And now it is the most perfectly lovely 
 dance that ever was ! " 
 
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 PRINCE VENTURESOME AND THE OLD WOMAN 
 
■«»,. 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a fairy that wanted 
 everythmg there was, twice over. His name 
 was Perizad, and he had a sister whose name was 
 Perizada, and she loved him very much. 
 
 It was curious about Perizad and the way he 
 wanted things. If any one gave him a drop of honey, 
 he would say before he drank it: "Where is the 
 rest?" 
 
 If he were dancing with the other fairies in the 
 fairy ring, he would call, while his feet were flying: 
 " Let us dance some more ! " 
 
 And every night when the moonlight was bright 
 and wonderful, he would say: "I wish there were 
 two moons. Then it would be light." 
 
 As for Perizada, she was always trying to take 
 things away from herself and give them to Perizad, 
 and if she had owned a moon he would have had it 
 at once. Only it would have done no good, for when 
 it was up in the sky he would have looked at it 
 longingly and said : " I wish there were four moons 
 instead of two." 
 
16 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 This went on until the Fairy Wish-Taker came 
 round on his yearly visit, and he not only looked into 
 the fairies' fern-houses to see that they were in order, 
 but he looked behind their thoughts. When he looked 
 behind Perizada's thoughts, he only smiled and nod- 
 ded pleasantly at her, so that she felt quite happy; 
 but when he came to Perizad, he wrinkled his brow 
 and said: "Dear me! dear me!" 
 
 Now Perizad was lying on a mullein leaf, at the 
 moment, thinking about things he would like. But 
 when the Wish-Taker said, " Dear me ! dear me ! " 
 he came to his feet and stood there on the leaf, look- 
 ing very brave and handsome. For Perizad was one 
 of the loveliest fairies ever made, dressed all in green 
 and white from top to toe. The green was like new 
 spring leaves, and the white was like frost. 
 
 " Why do you say, ' dear me ' ? '' he asked of the 
 Wish-Taker. 
 
 " I saw something," said the Wish-Taker. 
 
 " Behind my thoughts ? " 
 
 " Yes. Behind your thoughts." 
 
 Then Perizad laughed. 
 
 " Give you three guesses," he said. 
 
 "Oh, no," said the Wish-Taker, so coolly that 
 Perizad looked round to see if the wind had changed. 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 17 
 
 " You need n't give me any. I could take them if I 
 wanted them. But I don't use guesses. I know. 
 You were wishing that you could Hve two days in 
 one." 
 
 " Only through the summer," said Perizad. He 
 spoke confusedly, because Perizada was looking at 
 him, and he saw she was troubled or sorry. 
 
 The "Wish-Taker nodded. " Yes," said he, " only 
 through the summer." 
 
 Then, although no one had asked him any ques- 
 tions, Perizad began talking and frowning all at 
 once. He looked down at his handsome green feet, 
 and spoke fretfully, as if some one had blamed him. 
 
 " Summer days are very nice ; but they 're not 
 quite nice enough. If I could join two together, per- 
 haps they 'd be nice enough. Perizada, I don't see 
 what you 're looking like that for. I 'm not saying 
 anything wrong, am I? He could see it anyway when 
 he looks behind my thoughts." 
 
 Now it is against the law to be sad in Fairyland, 
 but in spite of that Perizada gazed down at her 
 little green feet and drew a long breath. She would 
 have cried perhaps, except that fairies have not 
 learned how. But it was plain to her that Perizad 
 was getting into trouble. 
 
18 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 ^^ You really want to live two days in one?" asked 
 the Wish-Taker, looking sharply at Perizad. 
 
 "Yes," said Perizad stoutly. "I wish it." 
 
 "Perhaps you don't understand that you '11 use up 
 all the other days in the year ? You may not have any 
 winter." 
 
 Perizad turned a somersault and stood on his head 
 on the mullein leaf. " I don't want any winter," said 
 he. 
 
 " We may have to take a few days out of the spring 
 and autumn." 
 
 " I can spare 'em." Perizad reversed himself and 
 stood up, very shiny and handsome, on the mullein 
 leaf. 
 
 " It 's an expensive business," said the Wish-Taker. 
 
 " I can afford it," said Perizad. 
 
 Then the Wish-Taker changed his manner at once. 
 " Yery well," said he, as short and sharp as you please. 
 " I think we can arrange it. This year we '11 pack up 
 the days just as hard and tight as we can, and you 
 shall have two in one. You don't want winter. You 
 need n't have it. You don't want autumn. You need 
 n't have it. We'll make up as many summer days 
 as we can manage, and you shall have them all at 
 
 once." 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 19 
 
 Now Perizad was so happy that standing on his 
 head was not enough. He went over and over on the 
 mullein leaf until he was nothing but a little green 
 wheel. But Perizada sat still, looking very sad. 
 
 Perizad came upright as a thought struck him. 
 " But none of the rest will like it," he said. 
 
 " The rest of whom ? " asked the Wish-Taker. 
 
 "Us — the fairies." 
 
 " No, they won't like it. So they won't have it. I 
 shall put you in a Large Place, where there will be 
 two days in one." 
 
 Perizad looked doubtful. '' Alone ?" he asked. 
 
 " Yes, all alone." 
 
 " Perizada and I ?" 
 
 " No. Perizada does n't want it, either." 
 
 " If you please, I should like it beyond everything," 
 said Perizada, in a very small and very sad voice, "if 
 Perizad is there." 
 
 "No, you would n't," said the Wish-Taker briskly. 
 " I can see what 's behind your thoughts." Then he 
 turned to Perizad. " Come," he said, in a voice they 
 had never heard from him before. " Make up your 
 mind. Take it or leave it." 
 
 Perizad looked at Perizada, where she sat droop- 
 ingly on the leaf, and quite decided to say, " No." But 
 
20 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 at that moment a sun-ray struck him, and he thought 
 how warm it was, and yet not warm enough, and in a 
 very loud voice he cried, " Yes ! " 
 
 Then suddenly he found himself alone. The "Wish- 
 Taker was gone and Perizada was gone, and Perizad 
 was simply by himself in a Large Place. At once it 
 seemed to Perizad that it was the most beautiful place 
 he had ever seen. It was an Enchanted Wood. He 
 had seen a great many enchanted woods, and so was 
 able to recognize them at once ; but this had darker 
 shadows and brighter lights and greener moss and 
 redder moss-cups. Through an opening between the 
 oaks he saw a glade, and on a bank rising beyond the 
 glade was a garden of flowers. Perizad wished him- 
 self there at once; and presently he was standing in 
 the sunlight, looking up at violets two feet high. At 
 first each flower seemed to him to have a drop of dew 
 in its heart, and he thought it lovely. But one of the 
 violets, the one that had sharper ears than the others, 
 answered him as soon as he had thought. 
 
 "No, it isn't a drop of dew; it's a tear." She spoke 
 very angrily, as if he ought to have known. 
 
 "Dear me," said Perizad. "Is that so? What are 
 you crying about?" 
 
 " We are crying because we don't know what has 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 21 
 
 happened to us," said the Yiolet; and all the other 
 violets nodded and cried another tear. 
 
 " Why, what do you think has happened ? " asked 
 Perizad. 
 
 u ^Q Ye so big ! " they shouted all together. " We 
 keep growing and growing and we can't help it. Look 
 at our stems ! They might as well be onion stalks." 
 
 Perizad did look at their stems, but he thought they 
 were very nice. He never could have too much of 
 anything. The sun w^as so hot that it almost burned 
 him, and the sky was so blue he thought he could dip 
 his finger in it and splash the violets with it. But now 
 they kej^t shouting, one at a time, and with every 
 shout they cried a tear. 
 
 "We don't know what has happened to us. This is 
 a Large Place, but it used to be just like other places." 
 
 "Everything keeps on growing, and nothing can 
 help it!" 
 
 "Look at that dog-tooth violet! It isn't a dog- 
 tooth ! It 's a walrus tooth ! " 
 
 " Look at that wind-flower ! It is n't a wind-flower ! 
 It 's a hurricane flower ! " 
 
 But Perizad was simply enchanted with what had 
 happened. The spring blooms had evidently been 
 ordered to stay and be summer blooms, and as he 
 
22 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 stood there thinking about it, the real summer flow- 
 ers began opening at his side, and they were larger 
 and brighter than any he had ever seen, and their 
 fragrance was so strong that he could dance on it, 
 just as he could on a mullein leaf. So all that day 
 he danced on the fragrance and sipped the honey. 
 But the honey was so strong that it went to his 
 head, and all night he lay asleep in a pool of moon- 
 light, and did not even know what bright moonlight 
 it was, although none before had ever been bright 
 enough. 
 
 So for days and days it kept on being summer, 
 and two days in one. The time went very quickly 
 because the two days had not been put end to end, 
 to make one, but laid together, one flat on the other, 
 and fastened tight. For a long time Perizad had a 
 great deal to do, exploring the Large Place, and he 
 was not lonely at all. Sometimes, when he found a 
 bigger flower than usual, he did wish Perizada could 
 see it, and once when he came on a great fairy ring 
 and danced in it all night long, he began to have a 
 queer little feeling inside him, because he was dancing 
 alone; but afterwards he sat down in the moonhght 
 to rest and think it over, and he remembered that 
 he could tell Perizada all about it sometime — and 
 
Pi 
 w 
 
 X 
 H 
 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 < 
 
 Q 
 H 
 O 
 
 w 
 
 CO 
 
 1-1 
 O 
 
 O 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 23 
 
 then he got up quite happily and began dancing 
 again. 
 
 So it went on and on and it was always summer, 
 and the sun was always hot and the flowers were 
 always brilliant. And Perizad went about looking 
 and tasting by day and dancing by night, and he 
 looked and tasted and danced so much that his eyes 
 and his nose and his legs all felt very queer. But still he 
 thought he liked the way he felt, because that was what 
 he had wanted, and he had got it. But one morning 
 he closed his eyes for just a minute because the sun 
 seemed to him so bright, and when he opened them 
 everything had changed. The flowers were still stand- 
 ing there, but they were different. Perizad looked at 
 them for a moment until he stopped being puzzled and 
 was almost afraid. Now very few fairies know how to 
 be afraid, and when Perizad found he had learned 
 the way, he did not like it at all. He hurried over to 
 the violets where they stood straight and tall on their 
 big green stems. 
 
 " "What 's the matter ? " cried Perizad. " What 's 
 the matter?" 
 
 " We don't know," said the Yiolet that was always 
 talking. " Something dreadful is the matter, but we 
 don't know what it is." 
 
24 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 "Are you frightened?" asked Perizad, and his 
 teeth chattered. 
 
 " We think it 's because the summer is over," said 
 the Yiolet. " We are almost sure it is over, outside 
 this Large Place, and if it is, we ought to be with- 
 ered." 
 
 " Then why don't you wither ? " cried Perizad. He 
 felt as if somebody might do something and all would 
 be well. 
 
 " We don't know how," wailed the Yiolet. " Sum- 
 mer is over, and autumn has n't come ; and we don't 
 know how." 
 
 Suddenly Perizad thought of the Wind, because 
 the Wind is such a traveler that he has learned a 
 great many things, and can answer all sorts of ques- 
 tions. He straightened himself up and asked: 
 "Where is the Wind?" 
 
 " The Wind has died," moaned the Violet. " He 
 dies down in the summer. Then he comes to life and 
 rises in the autumn ; but if there is n't any autumn, 
 what can he do? He has died down, and there he 
 stays." 
 
 Perizad thought for a moment. 
 
 " Well," said he, " we must simply get the better of 
 this thing. We must n't let it get the better of us." 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 25 
 
 Then he saw a Squirrel sitting on a branch, and 
 the Squirrel's tail was drooping and his head hung 
 heavily. It seemed to Perizad as if the Squirrel felt 
 as he did and as the violets did, and that he wished 
 he might die down like the Wind. 
 
 '^ Holloa ! " said the Squirrel. He looked down at 
 Perizad and blinked a sleepy eye. " Seen anything of 
 Autumn round here ? " 
 
 " No," said Perizad. 
 
 " I 'm tired of waiting," said the Squirrel. " No- 
 thing ripens. The fruit 's a sight. The nuts are 
 green." 
 
 Perizad had a choking in his throat. He felt a 
 little homesick, though he did not know what the 
 sensation was. But he climbed a twig skillfully and 
 slapped the Squirrel on the back. He spoke gruffly 
 into the gray ear. " It 's summer time," said he. 
 ^^ Did n't you know that? What do you want better 
 than summer ? " 
 
 But the Squirrel only turned on him a dull glance. 
 
 "I like brown leaves," said he. 
 
 Perizad looked down at the trembling green forest 
 and through the flowery glade, and there was some- 
 thing queer at the bottom of his heart. He had heard 
 about heart-aches. 
 
26 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 "Is this an ache?" said he. 
 
 But the Squirrel did not hear. He had dozed off 
 again, and he was murmuring something about nuts 
 and hollow trees and snow. 
 
 The next day it was just the same. The flowers 
 kept on standing straight and tall; but when Perizad 
 spoke to them they answered him quite feverishly. 
 And the worst of it w^as, they seemed to know that 
 all their misfortunes were due to him, and they talked 
 quite shockingly about it. Perizad heard them some- 
 times when he was wandering about in his green and 
 white that was always shiny, like a new leaf, and he 
 got in the habit of slipping softly from twig to twig, 
 so as not to be seen. 
 
 "Bah ! " said the Tiger Lily, when he was stopping 
 for a moment under her petals. " You 're a pretty fel- 
 low. Don't come near me. I 'm crouched to spring." 
 
 'Now Perizad felt again that little ache inside him, 
 and when he put his hands to his eyes, to cover them, 
 he found something wet traveling down his cheek. 
 The Tiger Lily went on scolding. 
 
 "A pretty joke to play on us! I know all about it. 
 A Summer Wind crept in one day and he told me the 
 pickle you 'd got us in. Summer, indeed, and two days 
 in one ! It 's all very well for you, lounging round here 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 27 
 
 with your hands in your pockets, staring at us. How 
 would you hke to work double time, and grow twice 
 your size, and yawn your head off, and be told it was 
 going to be summer forever and no time to sleep ? " 
 
 " Forever ? " sobbed Perizad. " Is this going on for- 
 ever ? " 
 
 ^^Not quite forever, maybe," said the Tiger Lily> 
 ^' but as long as the days last. The Summer Wind said 
 you 'd taken the winter and the autumn and somehow 
 stirred them into the summer. We have n't got to the 
 end of them yet. But I '11 tell you one thing." The 
 Tiger Lily shook with anger on her stem. 
 
 "What will you tell me?" asked Perizad mourn- 
 Mly. 
 
 " If you 're going to use two days in one, what 
 you 've got won't last you round to sjDring again. 
 There '11 be a time when it won't be summer and it 
 won't be winter, because you 've used them up. And 
 you '11 be Nowhere, That 's where you will be — jSTo- 
 where." 
 
 "Well," said Perizad, "maybe that's the best place 
 for me. As I 've made my coat, so I must w^ear it." 
 
 "Did anybody say anything about a coat?" asked 
 a Eabbit. He was hurrying by, but he stopped and 
 saluted, with a paw to his forehead. "Beg pardon, 
 
28 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 sir, but if there 's any news about coats, I should be 
 glad to hear it. I never wear the same coat summer 
 and winter, and never the same color even. If there 's 
 any chance of the winter fashions coming in — " 
 
 But Perizad had put his hands to his ears, and hur- 
 ried off. He ran for a long time, and when he stopped 
 to breathe, the sun had set and the moonlight made 
 it bright as day. And when he took his hands away 
 from his ears, he could hear a hoarse murmur of voices 
 behind him, and the patter of little feet. All the ani- 
 mals were on his track, hunting him out of the Large 
 Place, and all the flowers were cheering the animals 
 on and urging them to run. Then Perizad began to 
 run again, and he ran and he ran until he came up 
 against something he could not pass. He did not see 
 it, but he knew at once that it was the fence set by the 
 Wish-Taker about the Large Place, and that he could 
 never cross it. The angry voices and the pursuing 
 steps were still behind him, and he felt as if he had 
 not one friend in the whole world. 
 
 Then he cried out loudly, not knowing what he 
 should say, " Perizada ! Perizada ! " and a voice an- 
 swered at once, " Perizad ! Perizad ! " 
 
 Perizad's heart beat so loud that he thought it 
 would choke him. 
 
PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 29 
 
 "Where are you?" he cried. "Where are you, 
 Perizada?" 
 
 " On the other side of the fence," answered Peri- 
 zada. " Take courage, Perizad, for it lacks only one 
 minute of the end of all the days you asked for. And 
 when the minute is over, the fence will be down, and 
 the Large Place will be like other places." 
 
 " But I — Perizada," cried Perizad, " what will be- 
 come of me ? I have used up my days, and I shall be 
 Nowhere." 
 
 Then Perizada laughed quite merrily on the other 
 side of the fence. 
 
 " Oh, no, Perizad," she said, " for I have taken care 
 of that. I asked the Wish-Taker to give you all my 
 summer days, while you were here, to use when you 
 got out of the Large Place. I was very careful to do 
 the sum right. The Wish-Taker helped me. So I think 
 we shall be able to go on li\ang just as we did before. 
 The minute is over. Perizad ! " 
 
 Suddenly the steps and angry voices died, the 
 moonbeams deepened into the light of day, and Peri- 
 zad found himself in the old home forest with brown 
 leaves underfoot and a soft wind blowing. 
 
 Perizada stood there smihng at him, dressed in 
 a new suit of lovely brown. And Perizad knew that 
 
30 PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 
 
 in all his life he had never been content as he was 
 now. 
 
 " But, Perizada," he said, when they had looked at 
 each other steadily for many minutes, in great de- 
 light, " where were you all the time you were saving 
 your days for me ? Were you Nowhere ? " 
 
 For a moment Perizada did not answer. It seemed 
 as if she remembered something dark and dreadful. 
 Then she said softly: " Yes, I was Nowhere." 
 
 ""Was it — " he paused a moment, and then he 
 asked, " Was it hard, Perizada ? " 
 
 She was still looking at him bravely. 
 
 " Yes, Perizad," she said. " But I did it." 
 
 Perizad stood thinking for a long time, and then 
 he said : " I wish I could be sure they were happy — 
 the ones I left in the Large Place." 
 
 " We can go there," said Perizada quickly. '^ Do 
 you not see, the fence is down ! It is just like other 
 places now. Come." 
 
 So hand in hand they went back to the Large 
 Place. But it was nothing more nor less than a beau- 
 ful forest, in the sober tints of autumn. The flow- 
 ers had withered, the leaves were falling, and the 
 Wind had risen. And far in the distance they heard 
 the fall of little feet and saw the shadow of a bushy 
 

PERIZAD AND PERIZADA 31 
 
 tail, as the Squirrel and the Rabbit hurried away 
 toward the outer world, where the nuts were riper 
 and winter coats were more advanced. 
 
 By and by Perizad and Perizada sat down together 
 by the side of a still spring and looked into it at the 
 picture of the autumn sky. 
 
 " I shall never wish for things again," said Perizad. 
 "Except you, Perizada. It would be nice if there 
 were two of you." 
 
 Then Perizada laughed as we do when we are very 
 happy. She put her hand gently ujoon his head, and 
 bent it over the pool. And as he leaned she leaned 
 also. 
 
 " Look, Perizad," she said, " there is one Perizada 
 in the pool. And look at me. Here is another. So there 
 are two Perizadas, and one is as happy as the other, 
 because their two dear Perizads have come back 
 from the Large Place." 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 LONG ago there stood in the midst of a pleasant 
 plain a city which was under the absolute rule 
 of a lord mayor. It had once formed a tiny kingdom; 
 but its citizens grew very tired of kings, and one day 
 made the last sovereign over into a private individual, 
 gave him a house and garden, and invited him to earn 
 his daily bread. Then they were quite happy; and the 
 ex-king, who knew how to raise excellent turnips for 
 the market, was also well content. But after a time, 
 the lord mayor in power became so proud and ambi- 
 tious that he insisted on living in great state and being 
 called, "Your Highness," and "Your Serene Mighti- 
 ness." So after all the people found they had not bet- 
 tered themselves in the least by exchanging one 
 sovereign for another. 
 
 Now there lived in this city a worthy man, who was 
 called Peter the Simple, because he was always mak- 
 ing jokes and smiling at nothing; and he laughed 
 whenever he saw the lord mayor ride out in state or 
 heard him flattered by the crowd. 
 
 " How very funny ! " said he one day, when the great 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 33 
 
 marij robed in velvet and ermine, was driven past in a 
 gilded chariot. 
 
 The lord mayor heard him, and ordered his coach- 
 man to stop. 
 
 " What is funny, fellow ? " he called. 
 
 " Only to see a lord mayor look so much like a king," 
 said Peter, smiling broadly. 
 
 The lord mayor scowled and drove on. 
 
 " O Peter ! How could you ? " cried Peter's wife, 
 when the story was told her by a mischief-making 
 neighbor. " Now we are undone, and all by your fool- 
 ish laughter. Plenty of people no better than we have 
 got places in the lord mayor's council, and even in the 
 palace. I meant myself to apply for a situation as lord 
 mayor's wife's lady-in-waiting; but I might as well 
 save my breath for sighing over your folly." 
 
 " Ho ! ho ! How funny ! " cried Peter, leaning on his 
 spade to laugh. " You a lady-in-waiting, with your 
 face all paint and your hair all powder, like those purr- 
 ing tabbies I saw at the palace the other day ! If that 
 came to pass, I believe I should die a-laughing." 
 
 His wife went in and slammed the cottage door; but 
 the mischief -making neighbor, leaning over the fence, 
 had heard the conversation, and ran to tell it in the 
 market-place and at the palace. 
 
34 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 Of course, the lord mayor's wife was angry because 
 her attendants had been ridiculed; and the lord mayor 
 himself declared, with a dignity that was absolutely 
 tremendous : " Whenever you are attacked, my dear, 
 I and my great office are attacked also ! " 
 
 [Now about this time, everybody but the ex-king 
 and Peter the Simple began to imitate the lord mayor, 
 and wear high heels because he was by nature a tall 
 man, and red wigs because he had red hair. He was 
 greatly pleased and flattered by this, but Peter the 
 Simple laughed over it from morning till night; and, as 
 he never concealed his feelings, it became pretty well 
 known that he made fun of the lord mayor and his 
 followers. This made them angrier than ever: for the 
 more ridiculous they looked, the more they were afraid 
 of ridicule. At length it was actually decided in Town 
 Council that the airs of Peter the Simple were no longer 
 to be borne. A committee was sent to reason with him, 
 and, if he confessed his guilt, to inform him of the lord 
 mayor's sentence. 
 
 "When they arrived at his cottage, Peter was sitting 
 on his door-stone, resting after a hard forenoon's work, 
 and smiling over the thought of his wife's new red 
 wig, as it looked that morning when he tied it over the 
 cat's ears. 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 35 
 
 "It can't be they want to see me," he thought, as 
 fourteen red-wiggecl gentlemen came up the garden 
 walk. " No doubt they 've come to buy pears or grapes." 
 
 " Is your name Peter?" inqmred the foremost coun- 
 cilman. 
 
 " Otherwise known as ' The Simple,' " said Peter. 
 " What can I do for you to-day ? If you will sit down 
 here in the garden I '11 bring you a fine dish of gra]Des ; 
 or, if it pleases you to step into the kitchen, my wife 
 Margery shall make you a royal omelette." 
 
 "Peter the Simple," said the head councilman, 
 " you are accused of manifold crimes. Did you or did 
 you not laugh at the lord mayor's beautiful auburn 
 hair ? " 
 
 Peter tried to look grave, and put his hand over his 
 mouth. 
 
 " Well, your honor," said he, " I can't deny that I 
 said my sorrel colt had the prettiest red head in town." 
 
 " Did you or did you not class yourself with the late 
 king in speaking of the new style of dress ? " 
 
 "As to that," said Peter, " I did say it seemed rather 
 funny that the ex-king and I should be the only ones 
 that did n't follow the fashions. And I leave it to you, 
 honored sir, if it is n't funny to think of an ex-king and 
 a simpleton together." 
 
36 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 Then Peter began to laugh, and laughed so loud 
 and long that the head councilman could not get a 
 chance to speak, and so grew very angry. 
 
 '' Did you or did you not," shouted he at length, 
 when Peter paused for breath, " say that the people 
 would be better employed in working at their trades 
 than in curling their hair and dancing jigs ?" 
 
 "I may not have said they would be better off," said 
 Peter, " but I certainly said the city would be." 
 
 " You have been guilty of high treason," said the 
 head councilman, solemnly. " Without further trial, 
 you will now receive your sentence, which is that 
 you go outside the city gates and stay there hunting 
 for a needle in a haystack, until you find it, or until 
 you are recalled by the lord mayor. In your present 
 condition it is impossible for sensitive and high-minded 
 people like us to live in the same town with you." 
 
 With that the fourteen gentlemen turned about and 
 marched away. 
 
 !Now Peter was for a moment inclined to be some- 
 what melancholy; but it was not long before he saw 
 something funny in the idea of his banishment. 
 
 "What a queer occupation I shall have ! " bethought 
 as he went in to tell his wife about it, and take an early 
 dinner before setting out. " I dare say I shall find it 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 37 
 
 quite amusing outside the city gates. At least, I can 
 see all the traveling on the road." 
 
 In half an hour a guard of soldiers appeared to take 
 Peter away; and though his wife screamed at them, 
 and scolded him for bringing such a calamity upon 
 her, he went merrily off, whistling a pleasant tune 
 and cracking jokes with his escort. Outside the city 
 gates they took him ; and then, having dropped a fine 
 cambric needle in a large haystack, which had been 
 put up for the occasion, they left him to his search. 
 
 The days went on, and Peter, who was an indus- 
 trious man, hunted for the needle with all possible 
 diligence. 
 
 One morning, as he was cheerfully picking up 
 wisps of hay, and laying them in a separate pile, a 
 knave came riding by^ and said to him : " Hello ! What 
 are you doing there ? " 
 
 " Searching for a needle in a haystack," said Peter; 
 and then he went on to tell the circumstances of his 
 banishment. 
 
 '^ Oho ! " said the knave. " You must be a stupid 
 fellow; but still I don't mind helping you out of a 
 difficulty. See, here is a needle that I found in an old 
 lady's housewife I stole the other day. Take it, and 
 go tell the lord mayor you found it in the hay- 
 
38 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 stack. Then you can ask to be taken back into the 
 town." 
 
 ^^Ha! ha! " laughed Peter. " That would be a joke, 
 but it 's the kind I don't like to play. When I under- 
 take a piece of work, I 'd rather finish it. So I think 
 I '11 find my own needle, thank you." 
 
 ^^ Yery well," said the knave; and when he rode 
 into the town, he said to the people, " At last I Ve 
 seen an honest man, — the one out there hunting for 
 a needle in a haystack." 
 
 For a moment the people thought he was joking, 
 and then they began to look at each other in wonder. 
 
 '' Can it be possible he means our Peter ? " said 
 they. 
 
 The next week a philosopher rode by, and stopped 
 to ask Peter what he was doing. 
 
 " Alas! " said the philosopher, when Peter had told 
 his story, "yours is a hard lot." 
 
 " Not so very hard," answered Peter, smiling 
 broadly. " Every day they send me out a loaf of bread 
 from the city, and my wife often brings me an egg 
 or some fruit. Then there is a cool, sweet spring of 
 water here. I sleep very well on the haystack, and in 
 the morning the birds sing enough to do your heart 
 good." 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 39 
 
 "Wonderful! wonderful!" exclaimed the philoso- 
 pher; and he strode on, shaking his head and ponder- 
 ing. When he reached the city, he said to the crowd 
 assembled in the market-place : " There is a wise man 
 outside, hunting for a needle in a haystack. You 'd 
 better recall him, and beg him to tell you how to live. 
 He is the only true philosopher I Ve ever seen." 
 
 At this the people were more puzzled than ever, 
 . and could only repeat to one another : " Our Peter ? 
 Peter the Simple ? Surely, no one could call him 
 wise ! " 
 
 Not many days had passed before a king appeared 
 on the highway, followed by a train of horsemen; and, 
 seeing Peter at work, he stopped to ask him what he 
 was doing and where he lived. 
 
 " I live here, your Majesty," said Peter, after he 
 had told his occupation ; " but I used to live in that 
 little white house your Majesty will find at the end of 
 the first street, on the left of the city gate. It 's not 
 exactly a street, your Majesty: it looks more like a 
 long lane." 
 
 "Then I suppose," said the king, "if it's a long 
 lane, it has no turning." 
 
 Now this sounded moderately funny to Peter, and 
 he leaned against the haystack and laughed. 
 
40 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 " And," said the king, who began to be highly de- 
 lighted, "if it's the shortest way home for you, it 
 must also be the longest way round." 
 
 At this Peter laughed more and more, though any 
 wise person would have seen it was no joke at all. 
 
 " What 's the difference between a miller and a 
 caterpillar ? " asked the king. 
 
 "O your Majesty, I don't know," said Peter; 
 " but I 'm sure the answer must be tremendously 
 funny." 
 
 " One makes the flour fly, and the other makes the 
 butterfly," cried the king. " There ! Did you ever 
 in your life hear a better joke than that ? " 
 
 But Peter was laughing so hard that he really 
 could n't answer. If he had answered, he must have 
 told the truth, and said he had heard far better jokes, 
 but that he was made in such a manner as to laugh 
 at anything. 
 
 " You are a good fellow," said the king, " and a 
 remarkably sensible fellow. When you have worked 
 out your sentence, come over to my kingdom, and 
 I '11 make you my prime minister." And he rode on, 
 greatly pleased, muttering to himself from time to 
 time: "Such excellent sense! Such fine percep- 
 tions! " 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 41 
 
 !N'ow this king had from his youth been an unhappy 
 man, because he was always making poor jokes at 
 which nobody ever smiled. The courtiers would have 
 been delighted to roar themselves hoarse if they had 
 only known w^hat was expected of them ; but the king's 
 jokes w^ere so very bad that no one knew what he in- 
 tended them for until long afterwards, when he began 
 to frown and stamp. At last he was in high good 
 humor at finding one person who laughed without 
 being told. 
 
 " I suppose you banished that man out there be- 
 cause your lord mayor was jealous of him," he said 
 to the chief councilmen sent out to meet him. " I don't 
 wonder : he 's a fellow of remarkable intellect and taste. 
 I 'm glad you don't want him, however; for I mean 
 to take him with me on my way back, and make him 
 my prime minister." 
 
 " Peter the Simple ! Is it possible ? " cried all the 
 lord mayor's advisers. " Well, it really looks as if we 
 must have been mistaken in him, after all." 
 
 Meanwhile Peter labored on cheerfully at his hope- 
 less task; and one day there came by a lazy man, 
 w^ho said to him : " I Ve heard all about you, and I 
 think you must be a regular donkey. There 's nobody 
 here to watch you and see whether you search or not. 
 
42 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 Why don't you lie down on the haystack, and sleep 
 through the hottest part of the day ? " 
 
 "Oh, I Uke to be busy/' said Peter. "There's a 
 good deal of fun, after all, in hunting for a needle in 
 a haystack. Such a joke, you know, to look for what 
 you know you '11 never find." 
 
 " Well, that 's beyond me," said the lazy man ; and 
 he went on into the city, and told the citizens their 
 simpleton was the most industrious and honorable 
 man alive. 
 
 Peter's next caller was a fool, who could n't possibly 
 imagine why he was searching for the needle, anyway. 
 
 " Don't you see ? " said Peter, with a wink. " Be- 
 cause I 've been told to by that very wise lord mayor. 
 You have to obey the laws of your country, you know. 
 That 's what makes a good citizen." 
 
 Then the fool went on, and told the next person 
 he met that he heard a man say Peter the Simple was 
 an excellent citizen. 
 
 After this came a statesman who had spent many 
 years of his life in trying to improve the laws of all 
 the countries round; and being greatly interested in 
 trades and occupations, he paused to see what Peter 
 was doing. 
 
 "Nothing of importance, sir," said Peter merrily; 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 43 
 
 "just working out my sentence for making fun of the 
 government." 
 
 The great statesman began to look at him with re- 
 newed interest. 
 
 " Perhaps you were right," he said. " I have been 
 studying your government for some months, and I am 
 inchned to think one might well make fun of it. How 
 would you change it ? " 
 
 " O sir ! " said Peter, smiling at the idea of his 
 changing anything so important, " I am a simple fel- 
 low, and know nothing about such things. Only it 
 seems to me that people would be better off if they 
 worked at their trades, wore plain clothes, and went 
 to bed early, than they are dancing round in velvet 
 and false hair, and imposing heavy taxes that nobody 
 can pay." 
 
 " You are right," said the statesman. " You are 
 quite right." And he, too, entered the city. 
 
 There he found everything in the greatest confus- 
 ion. The people were at last tired of living a life of 
 idleness and display to which they had never been ac- 
 customed, even in the ex-king's time. They all had 
 headaches from eating fruit-cake and plum-pudding, 
 their legs were stiff with dancing, and they were cross 
 from sitting up late at night, paying compliments to 
 
44 PETER THE SIMPLE 
 
 tne lord mayor and his wife. Most of all were they 
 tired of the lord mayor himself: for just now, having 
 seen in the glass that his nose was growing red, he 
 had ordered all his subjects to paint their noses a 
 bright carmine. 
 
 ^' What shall we do? " cried the people to the great 
 statesman. "We are quite worn out with the lord mayor, 
 and there is n't a soul among us fit to take his place. 
 We are sick and tired of this foolish way of living." 
 
 " The most sensible man within reach," said the 
 great statesman, " is the one named Peter, who is 
 working contentedly outside the city gates." 
 
 " Peter the Simple ! " cried they all with one accord. 
 " The whole world sings his praise, and he shall be 
 lord mayor ! " 
 
 They hurried into the palace, to tell the present 
 lord mayor their decision; and, as you may imagine, 
 he turned red with wrath and green with envy. 
 
 "But I won't be deposed ! " he cried. 
 
 " Oh, yes, you will ! " shouted the people. " It 's a 
 revolution, and you can't help it. Get out of that chair 
 instantly, for we want to cut it down a little for our 
 Peter ! He 's much shorter than you." 
 
 The lord mayor saw there was nothing to do but 
 obey ; and so he took off his robes, and changed him- 
 
PETER THE SIMPLE 45 
 
 self speedily into a very commonplace sort of private 
 citizen. Then the people went in procession to beg 
 Peter the Simple to take his place. 
 
 " "Why, really, I suppose I must, if you wish it/' 
 said Peter. ^^I could do it as a sort of joke, you know. 
 But you must allow me to have the great statesman 
 foi' my prime minister." 
 
 ^' Of course! " cried the people. 
 
 " If you wish,^' answered the statesman, with dignity. 
 
 Then Peter the Simple took the oath of office out- 
 side the city gates, in order that he might sign an 
 order there for his own recall from banishment; but 
 just as he passed the document to his prime minister, 
 he gave a great shout, — 
 
 " The needle ! the needle ! " 
 
 It was actually found. Instead of falling through 
 the haystack, it had pierced a broad, dry leaf, which 
 the prime minister had taken to wipe his pen. 
 
 "What a joke! " cried Peter; and as he had be- 
 come lord mayor, all the people were ready to laugh 
 with him. As for Margery, his wife, she looke-d very 
 haughtily at her mischief-making neighbor. 
 
 "I always said my husband could afford to laugh," 
 said she. " I thank my stars I appreciated him from 
 the first!" 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 [HERE was once a fairy who wanted to know all 
 the things that ever were. This was very nn- 
 usuaJ, because most fairies know a great deal more 
 than they have time to do; but somehow this fairy, 
 who was named Gillibloom, had an idea that mortals 
 know a great deal and that fairies would be happier 
 if they could find out what some of the things are. 
 This was because he had one day hidden under a leaf 
 and heard a very tall white-haired mortal telling a 
 very short yellow-haired one queer things about the 
 flowers in the woods, and calling them long names. 
 
 Afterwards Gillibloom had said to the flowers: 
 " What made the tall white-top and the short yellow- 
 top call you those names ? " 
 
 And one lady's-slipper had yawned and said : " We 
 don't know. They 're always doing it." 
 
 " But are they your real names ? " said Gillibloom. 
 
 " Why, no, of course not," said the lady's-slipper. 
 " Our real names are what the spring wind calls us 
 when it 's time to get up." 
 
 But Gillibloom was not satisfied. He felt as if mor- 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 47 
 
 tals would n't be so serious about a thing unless there 
 was a reason for it; and pretty soon he went to the 
 Fairy Queen and asked for leave of absence for thirty- 
 three and a third years, that he might go and live 
 among mortals and learn things. He asked for ex- 
 actly thirty-three and a third years because that is a 
 third of a hundred. Of course it was a good deal to 
 expect to be excused from active service for all that 
 time, because active service among fairies consists in 
 dancing whenever they want to, which is nearly every 
 minute; and every one knows how hard it would be 
 to give up dancing for thirty-three and a third years. 
 But Gillibloom left the fairies dancing and went away. 
 
 At the end of thirty-three and a third years he 
 came back again, and he found the fairies dancing 
 just as if they had never left off. They were all per- 
 fectly delighted to see him, and they left off dancing 
 and crowded round him and cried out all together, 
 which is the way the fairies sometimes talk : " O Gil- 
 libloom, what have you learned ? " 
 
 Gillibloom looked at them a few minutes very sol- 
 emnly, as if he wanted them to pay great attention to 
 what he was going to say. Then he answered: "I 
 have not really learned anything; but I have almost 
 learned to cry." 
 
48 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 "To cry, Gillibloom?" called the fairies. "What 
 is that?" 
 
 " I know," said a fairy who was a great traveler, 
 and had once gone on a moonbeam excursion to a 
 large town. " It 's what mortals do when they want 
 something they have n't got, or have something they 
 don't want." 
 
 " Yes," said Gillibloom, " that is it." 
 
 " But what good is it ? " asked the other fairies. 
 
 "I don't really know," said Gillibloom; "but I 
 think it is really very good indeed, because so many 
 of them do it. Sometimes if you are very little and 
 want something, and cry and cry, somebody brings it 
 to you." 
 
 " But we don't want anything we can't get without 
 crying," said the fairies. 
 
 " Yes, that is true," said Gillibloom. " But it can't 
 be that so many people would cry if there wasn't 
 some use in it. Try as I may, I can't find out w^hat 
 the use is; but I thought I might form a class and we 
 could all cry together and then we should see what 
 happened." 
 
 Now some of the fairies were too busy painting 
 flowers to join a class, and some were too busy riding 
 on bees'- wings, but there were a few dozen who said : 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 49 
 
 "We might as well join. "Why not? It will please 
 Gillibloomj and maybe there is some use in it, after 
 all." 
 
 So Gillibloom aj)pointed the next night by the 
 banks of the Standing Pool ; for, he said, it would be 
 quite impossible at first to cry anywhere except by 
 the side of still water. 
 
 The next night they were all there, twenty-seven 
 of them, each with a moss-cup in his hand. Gillibloom 
 had ordered this beforehand. 
 
 " ]N"o pupil will be admitted," he said, " unless he is 
 provided with an individual moss-cup of the best make, 
 marked with his initials in plain script." 
 
 The truth was he had heard that at one of the 
 mortal seminaries he had visited, and he felt as if it 
 might as well apply to moss-cups as to clothes, and 
 you couldn't be too jiarticular about beginning right. 
 
 But when the twenty-seven fairies came together 
 by the Standing Pool, they called out, as if they 
 had made up their minds to it beforehand : " Gilli- 
 bloom, what 's initials ? " And then, " Gillibloom, 
 what 's plain script ? " 
 
 So Gillibloom had to shake his head at them and 
 say very grandly : " That is not the question. We are 
 here to cry." 
 
50 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 So the fairies all sat down in a circle, and looked 
 pleasantly about at one another and said: ^^"We are 
 here to cry." 
 
 " Now, in the beginning," said Gillibloom, " I will 
 show you how it is done. The first three of you there 
 by the acorn must run at me and knock off my cap." 
 
 So the first three ran gaily at him and knocked off 
 his cap; but they might as well not have done it, for 
 another cap, just as green and with just as red a 
 feather, blew right down from somewhere else and 
 settled on his head, and the fairies laughed, and Gil- 
 libloom did, too. 
 
 " "Well," said he, '^ the next three of you must trip 
 me up, and I '11 fall down on the ground, and then 
 I '11 show you how to cry." 
 
 So the next three tripped him up, and Gillibloom 
 did n't mind it in the least because, whatever you do 
 in the fairy woods, it never hurts. But he remembered 
 that he was the teacher, and if he did n't begin to 
 teach he would pretty soon be no teacher at all. So 
 he sat there on the groiuid and made up a dreadful 
 face, and wrinkled his forehead and shut his eyes and 
 pulled down the corners of his mouth. And then he 
 dipped his own moss-cup carefully into the Standing 
 Pool, and brought up a drop of water. And he put 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 51 
 
 his fingers in it and splashed some on his face, and it 
 ran down his cheeks, and he said proudly: "l^o^Y I 
 am almost crying." 
 
 " Ho ! '/ said the fairies, " is that all ? AVe can do 
 that without being taught." 
 
 So they wrinkled up their foreheads and shut their 
 eyes and drew down their mouths and dipped their 
 fingers in the moss-cups and sprinkled their faces and 
 made a bellowing noise, and they said proudly: " Now 
 we are almost crying, too." 
 
 Gillibloom had opened his eyes and wiped his cheeks 
 on a bit of everlasting petal. 
 
 " That was very good," he said, " very good indeed! 
 To-morrow we will go on with the second lesson." 
 
 But the twenty-seventh fairy was thinking just then 
 that he might have been dancing all this time, and he 
 said: " GiUibloom, I don't see what good it will do." 
 
 " What good will what do ? " Gillibloom repeated, 
 rather crossly : for he did not see either. 
 
 " Learning to cry," said the twenty-seventh fairy. 
 " It is n't very pleasant to do, and we look horrid when 
 we make up faces, and we sound horrid when we bel- 
 low. And you said it was a way to get things when 
 we w^ant them. But we told you before, we don't 
 want anything we have n't got. And besides, look at 
 
52 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 us! We've cried to-day, and we haven't got any- 
 thing. And I don't know but we have lost some- 
 thing : for if we had n't been here, we might have been 
 dancing, and when you are dancing you 've got the 
 preciousest thing there is. So there ! " 
 
 " It must be remembered that we have only learned 
 Almost Crying to-day," said Gillibloom, with dignity. 
 " So of course we have only Almost got something. 
 When we have learned Quite Crying it will be a dif- 
 ferent matter." 
 
 "I can't help it," said the twenty-seventh fairy. 
 '^ I 'm not coming any more. Anybody want my cup? " 
 
 But nobody did, because all the other pupils had 
 kept their cups very carefully, and he tossed it into 
 the Standing Pool and danced away through the for- 
 est, smging : — 
 
 " School 's dismissed ! School 's dismissed I 
 Out of so many I shan't be missed. 
 By and by they '11 learn to cry. 
 But if any one 's there, it won't be I. 
 I 'd rather sing or dance or fly, 
 Or swim in a puddle where star-shines lie. 
 I '11 not cry — not I ! " 
 
 And the next day it was just the same. The twenty- 
 six fairies sat by the side of the Standing Pool, and 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 53 
 
 Gillibloom wrinkled up his forehead and shut his eyes 
 and drew down his mouth and bellowed and wet his 
 cheeks with water out of his moss-cup; and they all 
 did the same, and then they said : " Now we are Al- 
 most Crying." 
 
 But when the lesson was over, the twenty-sixth 
 fairy said he had some wheat ripening to attend to in 
 a field ever so far away ; and the next day the twenty- 
 fifth fairy said there was a Crow Caucus on, and he 
 wanted to see what they meant to do about the scare- 
 crow in the field they 'd owned from a time whereof 
 the memory of crows runneth not to the contrary, — 
 and he couldn't come any more; and the next day 
 the twenty-fourth fairy said there were ever so many 
 dancing steps he had n't practiced for a long time, 
 and he could n't come any more ; and the next day 
 the twenty-third fairy said there was a queer-shaped 
 leaf on the watercress down by the spring, and he 
 thought he ought to look round a bit and see if there 
 were any more like it, and he couldn't come any 
 more. 
 
 And so it went on until Gillibloom was the only 
 one left, and he sat by the Standing Pool and dished 
 up water to splash his face and wrinkled up his fore- 
 head and shut his eyes and drew down his mouth and 
 
64 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 bellowed; and whenever the rest of the fames heard 
 him or saw him, they clapped their hands over their 
 eyes, and put their fingers in their ears, and ran away 
 as hard as they could pelt. And so it happened that 
 the forest about the Standing Pool was perfectly 
 quiet: for no bird or squirrel or bee or any other 
 thing that lives and breathes in the forest will stay 
 after the fairies are gone. 
 
 And the Sun looked in and said : " There is nobody 
 there but that silly Gillibloom, and he is Almost Cry- 
 ing all the time. I '11 go away and shine somewhere 
 else." 
 
 And the Moon looked down at night and said: 
 " Why, there 's nothing in that forest but a Dreadful 
 Sound. There 's no use in my troubling myself to 
 squeeze down through the branches, for sounds can 
 get along just as well by themselves." 
 
 So she drove off very fast to the fairy green and 
 rolled such a river of light into the fairy ring that 
 the fairies gave up dancing and got flower-cups and 
 sailed on the river, and some who couldn't stop to 
 get flower-cups swam in it, and it was the gayest night 
 ever to be remembered. 
 
 Now when Gillibloom found that the fairies had all 
 gone and left him to himself, and the four-footed things 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 55 
 
 and the two-footed things, and the things that have 
 feathers and fur and gauze- wings and shell- wings, 
 he felt differently from what he ever had before. He 
 had been bellowing for a long time that night, be- 
 cause he was determined to learn to cry and get it over 
 and then go back to his people; but now he said to 
 himself: " I will not cry any more. And anyway it is 
 not Quite Crying, and if Almost Crying makes every- 
 thing run away from me, I don't know what Quite 
 Crying would do." 
 
 So he tried to shut his mouth, and stop its bellow- 
 ing; but it w^ould not sto23. And he tried to smooth 
 his forehead, and it stayed wrinkled, and he tried to 
 open his eyes, and they would not open, and he tried 
 to draw up the corners of his mouth, and they would 
 stay down. And there was a strange feeling in his 
 throat, and his heart beat very fast, and though he 
 had not dipped up the water of the Standing Pool 
 for as much as two hours, his cheeks were all wet. 
 
 " Oh," said Gillibloom to himself, " what has hap- 
 pened to me ! what has happened to me ! " 
 
 And he started running just as fast as he could 
 through the silent forest to the Earth- Woman's house, 
 and as he ran he said to himself : " What has happened 
 to me? What has happened to me? Am I afraid? " 
 
56 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 Now for a fairy to be afraid is just as impossible 
 as for it not to be a fairy; but Gillibloom knew he 
 was somehow changed, and he could only run and 
 call aloud at the top of his voice, " Am I afraid ? Am 
 I afraid ? " 
 
 ISTow the Earth-Woman lives in the very middle of 
 the wood, in a green house that nobody can see by 
 day, and a dark brown house that nobody can see at 
 twilight, and a black house that nobody can see 
 by night. And when she heard Gillibloom come 
 screaming through the forest, she stepped to her 
 door and stood waiting for him, and in a minute he 
 was there, and laid hold of her skirts and clung to 
 them. 
 
 " Well ! well ! " said the Earth- Woman, " and who 
 is this ? " Then she stooped down and took up Gil- 
 libloom between her thumb and forefinger, and looked 
 at him. "By acorns and nuts! "said she. "It's the 
 Cry Fairy." 
 
 "No! no! "said Gillibloom. "No! no! I'm the 
 Almost Cry Fairy. I 'm never going to Quite Cry, 
 for I don't know what it would do to me." 
 
 The Earth- Woman laid her finger to Gillibloom's 
 cheek and touched it and put it, all wet, to her lips. She 
 nodded and then shook her head. 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 57 
 
 " Well," said she, " you were a silly, were n't you ? 
 Now what do you want me to do ? " 
 
 Gillibloom kept on bellowing. 
 
 "I want to be with the others." 
 
 " What others ? " asked the Earth- Woman severely. 
 " The other cry-babies ? " 
 
 " The fairies and the furs and the feathers and the 
 wings and the fins and the tails and the sun and the 
 moon," bellowed Gillibloom : though now you could 
 hardly have understood a word he said. 
 
 But the Earth- Woman could understand. She im- 
 derstood everything. 
 
 " Then," she said, "you must open your eyes, 
 smooth out your forehead and pull up your mouth, 
 and stop that noise." 
 
 Gillibloom tried, because, whatever the Earth- 
 Woman says in the forest, it has to be done. But he 
 could not do it. And worse than that, he found he 
 didn't really want to. 
 
 " Do you like to have your throat feel all pinched 
 up, as if you could n't swallow a drop of honey ? " the 
 Earth- Woman asked him. 
 
 "No! " screamed Gillibloom. And then he roared 
 louder than ever. You could have heard him across 
 twenty violets. 
 
58 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 " Do you like to have your mouth all salt with 
 tears, and your pretty tunic wet with them ? " 
 
 " No ! no ! " said GiUibloom. 
 
 But he kept on roaring. 
 
 " There, you see ! " said the Earth-Woman. " Now 
 I '11 tell you something, Gillibloom, and you keep it 
 in your mind until you forget it. The more you cry, 
 the harder it is to stop, and the only way to stop cry- 
 mg is to smile." 
 
 " Cry ? " said Gillibloom. " Is this Quite Crying ? 
 Is n't it Almost Crying ? " 
 
 " That 's as may be," said the Earth- Woman wisely. 
 "Now you come in here with me." 
 
 So she carried him into her hut, where it is very 
 dark but Hght enough to see to do all sorts of won- 
 derful things; and she ironed out his forehead and 
 put a nice polish on it, and she opened his eyes and 
 told them to stay open, and she shut his mouth 
 and told it to stay shut, and when it had really done 
 it, she stretched it very carefully indeed, until it was 
 perhaps two cat's hairs wider than it had been for a 
 long time. 
 
 " There ! " said she, " I can't do any more until it 
 softens a Httle. Lie down there, Gillibloom, and think 
 about leaves in spring." 
 
THE CRY FAIRY 59 
 
 So Gillibloom lay down on a very soft couch that 
 was perhaps rose-leaves and perhaps thistledown and 
 perhaps corn-silk; and when he had lain there a day 
 and a night, the Earth-AYoman stretched his mouth a 
 little more, and a little more. And one night she said 
 to him : " Now, Gillibloom, your cure will take quite 
 a long time yet ; but you must do the rest of it your- 
 self. And this is what you must do. Whenever you 
 think of crying, you must stretch your mouth just as 
 wide as you can — " 
 
 ""Why, that's what the mortals call smihng," said 
 Gillibloom. 
 
 "And you must keep on doing it until you've for- 
 gotten to cry. Now I wish you were in the fairy 
 ring." 
 
 And she had no sooner said it than he was there. 
 All the fairies were dancing the new dance that is 
 called," Remember the Robins and Roses To-day and 
 Think of the Lilies and Larks." The fairies always have 
 such long titles ! but it takes a great many words to say 
 what they want to say, and then it is n't all put in. Now 
 when they saw Gillibloom standing there among 
 them, balancing on one foot and trying to look very 
 bold and gay, they stopped dancing and half turned 
 away and looked at him over their shoulders. If Gil- 
 
60 THE CRY FAIRY 
 
 libloom was going to teach, they did n't propose to 
 stay more than a second and a half in his company. 
 
 Gilhbloom really looked very nice. The Earth- 
 Woman had got the salt stains out of his timic, and 
 pressed it neatly for him, and brought him a new pair 
 of grasshopper tights. (They were very much worn 
 at that time.) And he was stretching his mouth as 
 hard as he could, and he put up one hand stealthily 
 and touched his cheek, and it was quite dry. That 
 gave him courage. 
 
 " Come on, fellows," said he. " On with the 
 dance ! " 
 
 Just then the moon looked down, and she was so 
 pleased to see Gillibloom back again that she tossed a 
 moon-wreath down over his shoulders, and it bright- 
 ened up the old tunic wonderfully and sent a splendid 
 light up into his face. And the fairies could see he 
 was smiling, and they began singing together, tenor 
 and bass and treble and alto, high and low, and as 
 many trills as you please, and all the grace-notes that 
 will go in comfortably. 
 
 "GilHbloom!" they sang, " Gillibloom! Gillibloom 's 
 come back ! '' 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 THE mother of Boy Gladheart was a very busy 
 woman, and, provided he seemed well and happy, 
 cared little how he spent his time; so it happened that 
 he grew into the habit of staying out-of-doors, in the 
 deep woods or bright meadows, from daylight until 
 dark. There he made the acquaintance of the fairy 
 Drolla, and she told him many wonderful things, which 
 few children know. If they learn them at all, it is from 
 some book of fairy tales, and that is far less pleasant 
 than hearing them from a fairy's lips. 
 
 One day, the two sat together under the shade of an 
 apple-tree in bloom. Droll a's dress was of apple-green, 
 and her face was rosy from the shade of a parasol, 
 made of a peach-blossom, curving above her head. 
 She had been telling Gladheart about the brownies 
 who work for mortals, expecting only love in reward, 
 and of those frolicsome elves who sleep all day and 
 dance by night, — 
 
 " Under the blossom that hangs on the bough." 
 " You fairies are happy creatures," said Gladheart. 
 
62 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 " But if I could have my choice, I 'd rather be a 
 king." 
 
 " A fairy king ? " asked Drolla. 
 
 " No, a real, mortal king, with a crown of gold." 
 
 Drolla laughed. She never frowned, even when 
 some one had displeased her; but those who knew her 
 well could trace many shades of feeling in her mirth. 
 This time it sounded scornful. 
 
 " Kings are different from other men," said Glad- 
 heart, with decision. " Oh, yes, Drolla, they are ! " 
 
 " Tell me about your kings," said the fairy, throw- 
 ing herself back on her couch of mullein velvet. " I 
 tell you about my people ; now it 's your turn." 
 
 " Well, in the first place," said Gladheart, " a king 
 lives in a beautiful palace. He wears silken robes and 
 eats from dishes of gold. Everything about him is 
 rich and perfect. Now you know when we common 
 folks want a fire, we go out into the woods and gather 
 sticks for it; but nothing of the sort happens in a 
 king's palace. Even his firewood is carved by clever 
 workmen. They cut upon it great sprays of vines and 
 flowers, and flocks of swallows with sweeping wings. 
 The people that come near the king must all be as 
 perfect as the things he sees and touches. The court- 
 iers have scented baths, and dress in snowy linen and 
 
HE 3rADE THE ACQUAINTANCE OF THE FAIRY DROLLA 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 63 
 
 soft fabrics; even the palace servants are fine and 
 pure. I suppose, if one hair of their heads lay the wrong 
 way, the king would know it and shudder, because he 
 is so great." 
 
 " Who has told you this ? " asked the fairy, with an 
 odd little smile. 
 
 " No one ; but I have thought it out myself, know- 
 ing w^hat kings must be, always to have been so served 
 and worshiped by other men. I suppose there are no 
 tears at the palace, and no wicked or cruel thoughts; 
 but all minds are spotless, and all lives like music. O 
 Drolla, it must be a wonderful thing to be a king, and 
 even to see one ! I long for that, though of course I 
 am not good enough." 
 
 " My little Gladheart," said Drolla, with a pitying 
 smile, " these things are not in the least as you im- 
 agine. Kings are quite as likely to be common people 
 as your ow^n father and mother." 
 
 Gladheart was almost angry at this. He rose and 
 walked aw^ay from his fairy friend, but presently he 
 came back, saying: "Drolla, I shall find out who is 
 right. Our own king's court is not many leagues away, 
 and to-morrow, at daybreak, I shall set out to see it. 
 Will you go with me ? " 
 
 '' Not I," said Drolla. " No, Gladheart, not I ! I have 
 
64 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO- COURT 
 
 important things to do. I have to sit here in the grass 
 and Hsten to the sound of waving plumes and sprout- 
 ing seeds. Stay with me and I will teach you more 
 wonderful things than you can learn at court, and show 
 you more marvelous sights." 
 
 " "What things ? " asked Gladheart. « What sights ? " 
 
 " I will tell you what lies hid at the heart of a wild 
 rose, and what the sparrow calls to his mate in the 
 early morning. I will teach you the songs sung in 
 Dreamland, and the poems no man has made." 
 
 " I must go," said Gladheart, shaking his head. " I 
 long to know what a real king is like, and I never 
 shall be satisfied until I learn." 
 
 " That is like you mortals," said Drolla sadly. " You 
 must learn, and you are not satisfied to know the things 
 that are best. But never mind! If you will go, take 
 this leaf, and, when you are in need, give it to any liv- 
 ing thing you see, except a mortal. Good-by, Glad- 
 heart." 
 
 For the space of an hour Gladheart was sad at 
 parting from his friend; but presently his mind was 
 filled with the thought of going to court, and at sun- 
 rise, next day, he stole from his little bed and crept out 
 of the house before his mother w^as awake. He had 
 taken a piece of bread in his pocket and knowing 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 65 
 
 that it would be ample for a few hours, gave himself 
 no uneasiness about dinner. As Drolla often said : " Do 
 not worry and blackberries will jump into your mouth." 
 The morning was all green and golden, with floods 
 of sunlight on the dew-washed grass. Gladheart's feet 
 were like wings, and as he walked along, now running 
 a little for joy, and now tossing his cap in the air, he 
 began singing, and these were the words of his song: 
 
 "Little folk high and little folk low, 
 Down in the earth or up in the air. 
 Come to me, follow me, whither I go ! 
 Lead me in paths that are pleasant and fair ! " 
 
 The whole wide world seemed empty, except for 
 the birds and flowers and Gladheart; but these were 
 enough — some for song, and some for fragrance, and 
 one little boy to love them all. 
 
 " And this is what it is to seek adventure ! " cried 
 he. "Oh, how much better than to drone along at 
 home, even with Drolla to sing and smile ! " 
 
 But as the day sped on, and the sun mounted high 
 in the heavens, his spirits fell from their topmost 
 flight, for he was hungry. He had finished his bread 
 at breakfast-time, and now — 
 
 "What shall I do ? " thought he, as he stopped to 
 
66 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 dabble his bare brown feet in a meadow brook. 
 " Who will help me to find a dinner ? " 
 
 But the brook did not answer, and kept on singing 
 its own song. Suddenly Gladheart remembered the 
 fairy leaf, which he had kept carefully in his bosom, 
 and he bent over and held it in the musical flow of 
 the water. 
 
 " Brook, Brook, what shall I eat ? " 
 
 Then the brook found a tongue that mortal could 
 understand, and sang aloud and clearly, — 
 
 " Whatever is moving, whatever is roving, 
 That shalt thou trust in, and follow and follow. 
 Be it slow snail, or the swift-darting swaUow." 
 
 Gladheart was puzzled, and looked about him. But 
 everything lay quiet under the summer sun. 
 
 " Perhaps it is the brook itself," he said, at last. 
 " That is the only moving thing I see." 
 
 "Oh, follow," 
 sang the brook, 
 
 " Straight through the tangle, and down through the hollow. 
 To slopes where red raspberries grow." 
 
 Gladheart had become so hungry that he started 
 running at this, and hardly stopped until he reached 
 the place where berries hung warm in the sun. 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 67 
 
 " Thank you, dear Brook ! " he cried, and ate until 
 his mouth was stained and fragrant. 
 
 The brook heeded him no more, but went singing 
 along the way, and Gladheart lay down on the fresh 
 grass and slept an hour. When he awoke, a mouse 
 sat quietly regarding him out of his bead-like eyes. 
 It was pointing at him with one tiny paw, and, seeing 
 that, Gladheart remembered that he was still holding 
 Drolla's leaf, now fresh and green again from the 
 waters of the brook. 
 
 " Thing possessed of a mortal soul, 
 Why do you hold the fairy scroll ? " 
 
 squeaked the mouse. 
 
 "I showed it to the brook," explained Gladheart, 
 "and the brook told me where to get my dinner. 
 ]S"ow I w^ant to find some one who will tell me the 
 way to the king's palace. Do you know it ? " 
 
 The mouse looked very important, and began 
 pompously : — 
 
 " Many things I know — 
 Where the farmhouse-cheeses grow, 
 Where the ripest grains are hid, 
 Underneath the meal-chest Ud ; 
 But to court I never go." 
 
68 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 Just then began a prodigious chattering over their 
 
 heads. 
 
 "Call the lark! the lark! 
 
 He could find it in the dark ! " 
 
 Gladheart looked up and saw a squirrel sitting with 
 his tail over his head for an umbrella. He it was who 
 had thrown down this good advice. 
 
 " The lark ! the lark ! " cried scores of voices, loud 
 and low, piercing and sweet, those of insect, flower, 
 and bird : for he who carries a fairy scroll is sure to 
 find all the world ready to help him. Then came a 
 sweep of wings, and a bird settled on a plume of 
 grass by Gladheart's side, just touching it with his 
 feet, and swaying and bowing as it swayed and bowed. 
 The clamor of sound was hushed, for the lark is a 
 spirit among birds. 
 
 " Follow the lark, the king," 
 
 whispered the mouse to Gladheart. 
 
 " Sweet is his throat. 
 Swift is his wing, 
 But evermore silent and humble is he, 
 If commanded the guide of the needy to be.'* 
 
 Gladheart rose to his feet, and the lark fluttered on 
 before him, sometimes coming back, in beautiful 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 69 
 
 curves of flight, and then for a moment hovering 
 over the boy's head. 
 
 " Thank you, dear Lark ! " said Gladheart. 
 
 But the lark did not answer. He darted up into the 
 heavens and dropped a flood of such singing that the 
 child's heart stood still with wonder; then he swept 
 down and guided as before. So they journeyed on, 
 and whenever the lark stopped, Gladheart knew that 
 it was intended as a sign for him to pick berries or 
 rest by the way. Fearing he might lose the magic 
 leaf, he pinned it in his cap, and after that many 
 strange things happened. A red-brown pony, at pas- 
 ture in a field, chanced to spy it, and trotted up with 
 head bent and mild eyes full of love, and Gladheart 
 understood at once that he was to mount and ride. So 
 he sprang on the pony's back, held tightly by his 
 mane, and away they went over hill and meadow, the 
 lark flying fast before. "When they had gone many 
 miles, the pony stopped, and Gladheart slid to the 
 ground, knowing he must not take his little friend 
 too far. 
 
 " Thank you, dear Pony," he said, and the pretty 
 creature trotted away over the track by which they 
 had come. Then before Gladheart and the lark had 
 crossed another pasture, a little rough donkey, with 
 
70 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 long ears and hair standing every way, came gallop- 
 ing up, and mutely invited the boy to mount. It was 
 with great joy that he did it, for the donkey was so 
 funny that Gladheart loved him even better than his 
 other friend. Away they went, though not at the 
 pony's pace, and it did not seem long before the don- 
 key also stopped, and Gladheart bade him good-by, 
 saying : " Thank you, dear Donkey ! " 
 
 Now the lark settled on a twig, and Gladheart be- 
 gan to notice that it was growing dark. 
 
 " Is it time for bed, dear Lark V " he asked, and the 
 bird for answer put his head under his wing. So Glad- 
 heart lay down beneath a tree, and, looking up at the 
 darkening heavens, tried to be contented and to think 
 as little as possible of his mother and his friend DroUa, 
 for fear the tears might come. Whatever should hap- 
 pen he determined to be brave, and for protection 
 from wandering things, placed beside his hand his 
 cap bearing the fairy leaf, that he might seize it at 
 any moment. It was not long before his eyes closed 
 and he knew no more, though his sleep was filled with 
 sweeter dreams than any he had yet imagined. 
 
 He dreamed of houses made of gold, and taller than 
 the trees, and these, he thought, were palaces. He 
 dreamed of men in shining armor, walking among 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 71 
 
 beds of flowers, sweeter than any in his mother's gar- 
 den — and these, he knew, were kings. And one of 
 them — the tallest of them all and the most shining 
 — put out a hand to him, and said : " Come, Gladheart! 
 come, and walk with us ! " 
 
 So they paced up and down together, in great con- 
 tent, and Gladheart felt that it was a very wonderful 
 world. 
 
 "When the light began to come and the w^oods about 
 him were filled with the music from many birds, he 
 heard also the sweep of wings, and became aware of 
 shadows passing across his eyelids. He lifted them 
 slowly, and lo! birds of every sort, from the saucy 
 crow to the nimble sparrow, were flying above him, 
 sweeping down and away, and close by his hand lay 
 a pile of fruit, brought for breakfast in their brown 
 and golden bills. 
 
 " Thank you, dear Birds ! " he called ; and as he 
 spoke they disappeared, with one last whirr. 
 
 Gladheart sat up, and looked about him, and then 
 Mother Cow and Grandmother Sheep rose, too, from 
 their places close by his side, and walked slowly aw^ay. 
 They also had seen the fairy scroll, and had lain there 
 all night to keep him warm. Gladheart called his 
 thanks after them, and then, bathing his face in a clear 
 
72 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 stream, he breakfasted on fruit, and rose to continue 
 his journey. As he did so a stream of silver notes came 
 dropping through the air, and with them, nearer and 
 nearer, sank the lark, ready to guide him as before. 
 
 For hours Gladheart followed the bird's flight, and 
 finally he was sure within his heart that he was near 
 the palace. The ground over which he traveled was 
 laid out in beautiful parks, and turrets rose in the 
 distance. A train of huntsmen swept past, taking no 
 notice of the dusty little boy, though the dogs smelled 
 the leaf in his cap and lingered to fawn upon him. 
 At length the turrets looked nearer and nearer, and 
 Gladheart entered a great gate, and his joy knew no 
 bounds. He trudged along a graveled walk, the lark 
 flying slowly and sorrowfully behind, and came sud- 
 denly upon a group of men, sitting about a table, on 
 which stood a flagon and drinking cups of gold. 
 One who sat apart, with a frown on his face, was the 
 first to notice Gladheart. 
 
 " Who is that beggar ? " he said to a servant at his 
 elbow. " Turn him out, or ask him what he wants." 
 
 The servant ran forward. He took Gladheart by 
 the collar. 
 
 " Now, then, little beggar,'' said he, " what do you 
 want?" 
 
HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 73 
 
 Gladheart did not tremble, though he wished his 
 mother were by. 
 
 " I want to see the king," he said stoutly; and the 
 lackey, running back to his lord, repeated the speech 
 and looked as if he could titter if he dared. 
 
 " Wants to see the king, does he ? " repeated the 
 other. " Well, boy, come here and look at me." 
 
 Gladheart advanced. He gazed for a moment, and 
 then began to smile. 
 
 " Oh, no, my lord," he said quietly, " you are not 
 a king." For he observed that the man was coarse 
 and ugly, and that only selfish thoughts dwelt in his 
 mind. 
 
 " And why ? " asked the king frowningly, while 
 all the courtiers bent forward in eager listening. 
 
 " Because," said Gladheart simply, longing to tell 
 the truth and yet fearing to be rude, " you do not 
 look like a king." 
 
 Now the king, who had been out hunting that day, 
 had killed nothing and was in a bad humor, and he 
 bent forward and struck the child across the cheek. 
 The blow was light, but the shame and horror of it 
 took away Gladheart's breath and he fell to the 
 ground. Thereupon the king's servant carried him 
 outside the palace gates and laid him under a hedge. 
 
74 HOW GLADHEART WENT TO COURT 
 
 When Gladheart awoke, he was lying in his own 
 mother's garden, where he could smell her balm and 
 lavender. 
 
 " DroUa," he cried, seeing his little friend close by, 
 " was it the king ? " 
 
 " Yes, dear child," said the fairy, with a pitying 
 smile. 
 
 " The Icing — who struck me ? Drolla, how did I 
 get home ? " 
 
 "I brought you, dear — my friends and I." 
 
 "Who told you?" 
 
 " The lark told me. And now, Gladheart, hear that 
 sad sound. It is your mother crying because you have 
 been away all night, and she is afraid you may be 
 lost. Go to her now, and to-morrow you shall come 
 to me under the tree and I will teach you wonderful 
 things." 
 
 Gladheart ran in and put his arms about his dear 
 mother and cried upon her breast. 
 
 Thereafter he was content with his simple life, and 
 went no more to court. 
 
•^^^^ 
 
 THE SHAME AND HORROR OF IT TOOK AWAY GLADHEART'S BREATH 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 NOT long ago there lived in a cave full of dark 
 holes and uglj shadows an old and feeble 
 Dragon, who had nobody in the world to take care 
 of him. He was the last of that tribe which once 
 waged terrible war upon mankind, and all his rela- 
 tions and friends had been killed off by this same 
 race of men, who declared that, unless they did take 
 such measures, the dragons would not only kill them 
 and their wives and children, but eat them into the 
 bargain. Perhaps this w^as true, for the dragons had 
 never been accustomed to eat anything but meat, and 
 so they felt actually obliged to supply themselves, 
 two or three times a week, with a plump boy or girl 
 or a well-seasoned old lady. 
 
 But all those exciting days were passed; now the 
 last Dragon had just strength enough to crawl slowly 
 about, setting snares to catch birds and rabbits for his 
 dinner. So feeble was he that you could scarcely have 
 terrified him more than by inviting him to attack a 
 human being. He w^as very lonely and unhappy, and 
 would have been far more so except that in a cave 
 
76 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 near by dwelt a Hippogriff who was in exactly the 
 same circumstances, alone, almost helpless, and the 
 last of his race. The dragons and hippogriffs had 
 once been deadly enemies, and two of the animals 
 meeting in a forest path would have torn each other 
 in pieces without stopping to say " Good-morning''; 
 but this pair had suffered so many hardships that they 
 were only too glad to forget old grievances and be- 
 come intimate friends. 
 
 One morning the Dragon rose early, after a miser- 
 able night, and when he had breakfasted on a cold 
 crow's wing, left from yesterday's dinner, he took 
 his cane, and crawled out into the sunshine, hoping 
 to see the Hippogriff. Sure enough, there sat his 
 friend, also sunning himself, at the door of his own 
 cave. 
 
 " Well," said the Dragon, " what sort of a night 
 have you had ? " 
 
 " Bad, bad !" groaned the Hippogriff. "The fact 
 is, I was too hungry to sleep. We can't stand this 
 much longer. A good half -ox or a tender young calf 
 would set us both up ; but we are too weak to provide 
 for ourselves. Our days are numbered." 
 
 " I 've been thinking it over in the watches of the 
 night," said the Dragon, " and I 've come to the con- 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 77 
 
 elusion that we 'd better go to the nearest village 
 and see if we can't get employment, and so be able 
 to start a little account at the butcher's. I think I 
 could carry stones or bite down trees as soon as I 
 get my strength up ; and I know you could sweep out 
 rooms with your tail." 
 
 " There 's only one trouble," said the Hippogriff 
 thoughtfully. " As soon as the people saw us coming, 
 they would set upon us and kill us before listening to 
 a word." 
 
 " Men are not what they once were," said the Dra- 
 gon, shaking his head wisely. " They talk a great deal 
 more than the knights we used to know, and they do 
 a great deal less. Get your stick, my friend, and let 
 us start while we still have strength to crawl along. 
 Trust me, it 's the only thing to do." 
 
 The Hippogriff was a little doubtful, but he had 
 the greatest confidence in his friend. The Dragon 
 always believed so firmly in himself that the Hip- 
 pogriff thought he must have good grounds for 
 doing so, and it would be very silly not to believe in 
 him, too. So he went in for his stick, gave a farewell 
 look at his cave, and then, taking the Dragon's arm, 
 set off down the hill that led to the village. 
 
 " Shall we ever see our homes again ? " he murmured, 
 
78 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 in a sad voice, after the first half mile. " Alas ! I am 
 afraid not." 
 
 " Who cares if we don't," said the Dragon, " if we 
 get other homes ten times as good ? " 
 
 And as that seemed reasonable, the Hippogriff 
 said meekly, " You are quite right," and went stumb- 
 ling along without further complaint. 
 
 All the forenoon long they journeyed; and though 
 faint and hungry, they dared not stop, for fear their 
 strength would desert them utterly. The steeple of 
 the village church seemed hardly nearer than in the 
 morning, and not a soul did they meet or pass upon 
 the way. 
 
 " I could eat a caterpillar with relish," said the 
 Hippogriff, at length. " O brother, think of the good 
 old days when we should have scorned a caterpillar, 
 except for dessert, after a hearty meal of a knight and 
 his horse." 
 
 "I don't think of the good old days," answered 
 the Dragon, still undaunted, though he could scarcely 
 limp along. " I have fixed my mind on the good time 
 coming, and there I mean it shall stay." 
 
 They staggered on until two o'clock in the after- 
 noon; and then, just as they were about to lie down 
 by the roadside in utter despair, the Dragon caught 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 79 
 
 sight of something which put new courage into his 
 failing limbs. 
 
 " Stop ! " he whispered, grasping the Hippogriff 's 
 arm. " Look over in that field, and tell me what you 
 see." 
 
 The Hippogriff looked. 
 
 " It 's a maiden," he answered, " sitting under a tree, 
 holding in her hand one of those queer things they 
 call books." 
 
 " We must go over there and talk with her," said 
 the Dragon. " No doubt she can tell us something 
 about the village people, and we will send her on in 
 advance to announce our intentions. But we must 
 circle about, so as to approach her from the back. If 
 she sees us coming, she will be terribly frightened, 
 and run, and we could n't possibly overtake her." 
 
 They climbed the fence, and began cautiously ap- 
 proaching the young woman, who was really so ab- 
 sorbed in reading a Greek play that there was not the 
 slightest danger of her seeing or hearing anything. 
 Only once was the silence broken; and then the Hip- 
 pogriff ventured timidly, " She would n't make a bad 
 dinner ! " 
 
 " Hush ! " said the wise Dragon. " That would do 
 very well for to-day, but what would become of us 
 
80 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 to-morrow ? The village people would turn out in a 
 body, and hunt us down. No ! I have become a law- 
 abiding citizen." 
 
 Meantime the young lady sat intently reading her 
 book, and sometimes consulting other volumes; and, 
 when the two travelers were within a few feet of 
 her, the Dragon gave a delicate cough. She slowly 
 turned her head and saw them. The Hippogriff, try- 
 ing to look as gentle as possible, laid one claw on his 
 heart, and made a low bow, while the Dragon gazed 
 at her with a cheerful smile. Still they both expected 
 her to give a blood-curdling shriek and spring to her 
 feet in terror. It was evident that they knew nothing 
 about this particular kind of young woman. She set- 
 tled her eye-glasses firmly upon her nose, and looked 
 the creatures over. 
 
 " Who are you," she asked, in a high, clear tone. 
 " Can you talk ? " 
 
 This was very confusing to the Dragon and Hippo- 
 griff. The thought darted through their minds : " If 
 a mere girl is n't afraid of us, what can we expect 
 from the village authorities?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, ma'am," said the Dragon, recovering him- 
 self first, " we talk and walk and eat (when we can 
 get anything). We are not in the least different from 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 81 
 
 other folks, though we may look so; and that's 
 why we 've made up our minds to move to the 
 village." 
 
 " What are your names ? " 
 
 " I am a Dragon, and my friend here is a Hippo- 
 griff." 
 
 A look of joy flitted over the young woman's face. 
 
 " How very interesting ! " she cried, in a tone of such 
 rapture that the Dragon's spirits rose at once. " How 
 wonderful that such an experience should be mine! 
 Come, sit down here on the grass and tell me about 
 yourselves." 
 
 The Dragon and the Hippogriff were very glad in- 
 deed to sit down, and the former es23ecially was well 
 inclined to talk. He began at the beginning of dragon 
 and hippogriff history, and told all he knew and all 
 he had ever heard about those remarkable creatures 
 and their warfare with men. "When he had finished, 
 his listener drew a breath of delight. 
 
 " This is amazing ! " said she. " I would n't have 
 believed it if I had n't heard it with my own ears." 
 
 " But what do you think of our chances of being 
 allowed to live in the village, ma'am?" ventured the 
 Hippogriff. 
 
 " They never would permit it in the world," she 
 
82 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 said, wrinkling her brows in thought. "The very 
 sight of you would frighten them to death." 
 
 " But you are not frightened ? " suggested the 
 Dragon. 
 
 She smiled at him loftily. 
 
 " No, but I am an Advanced Young Woman. I 
 have had a college course, and none of the village 
 folk are in the least like me. They would expect you 
 to eat them up." 
 
 " But we would promise not to," urged the Hippo- 
 griff, who was actually so hungry that he could not 
 speak of food without tears. 
 
 But the Advanced Young Woman was thinking so 
 hard that she took no notice of him at all. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried she at length, in triumph. " I have it! 
 You shall become vegetarians." 
 
 " I will become anything that is proper, ma'am," 
 said the Dragon meekly. "What sort of creatures 
 are they? I shouldn't want to give up my tail and 
 my claws." 
 
 " You would merely have to give up eating meat, 
 and then of course nobody would be afraid of you. It 
 will be a most interesting experiment. Perhaps we 
 can even modify your teeth, and make you gram- 
 inivorous." 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 83 
 
 This ambition was quite beyond the creatures' com- 
 prehension ; and so they said nothing, but tried to look 
 wise, as people often do who don't understand. 
 
 " Just over the brow of this hill," added the Ad- 
 vanced Young Woman, " is a cottage my father built 
 me for a study, so that I might retire there beyond 
 the hearing of the world." (She meant the village.) 
 " Now you shall go there with me, and after dark, I 
 will bring you some supper. You must on no account 
 step outside the door, and to-morrow, immediately 
 after breakfast, I will be with you." 
 
 Meanwhile she had packed her books together, 
 and, making them into a nice heavy bundle, started 
 away over the hillside, driving the two creatures be- 
 fore her; and although she was both slight and 
 young, they were really quite afraid of her, and went 
 meekly stumbling along, hand in hand. 
 
 " She seems to take a great interest in us," whis- 
 pered the Hippogriff, when the Advanced Young 
 Woman was occupied in unlocking the door. " She 
 must think us very remarkable." 
 
 " Hush," said the Dragon solemnly. " There is more 
 in this than we understand." 
 
 And there was 1 
 
 " There," said the young woman, when she had 
 
84 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 ushered them into the one large room that occupied 
 the entire floor of the cottage, " now be very quiet 
 and patient. To prevent accidents, I think I '11 lock 
 the door on the outside." 
 
 And this she did before hastening away. 
 
 When she was fairly gone, the Dragon and the 
 Hippogriff looked about them. The room was filled 
 with all sorts of strange articles, which they had 
 never seen or heard of. The walls were lined with 
 books; and on the large table there was an inkstand, 
 an unabridged dictionary, a microscope, a herbarium, 
 an astrolabe, a sextant, and other queer things used 
 by Advanced Young Women, but which I don't in the 
 least understand, any more than the Dragon and the 
 Hippogriff did. 
 
 "I don't like this," said the Hippogriff, looking 
 about him. 
 
 " Nor I," said the Dragon. " But let 's wait until 
 she comes back, and see what will happen." 
 
 Presently there was a rattling at the door, and in 
 came their hostess tugging a large pail, and looking 
 much excited. 
 
 " I 've brought your supper," said she cheerfully. 
 " Oatmeal, far more nutritious than meat ! " 
 
 She poured the pudding into two large dishes, and 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 85 
 
 placed it on the floor before them, and while they 
 tried to eat it, and smeared their jaws and burned 
 their tongues, she walked round and round, studying 
 them from every point of view. 
 
 " Vertebrates ! " she exclaimed, adding, as she 
 paused beside the Dragon, "Would it annoy you 
 it I tried to count your vertebrae while you are 
 eating ? " 
 
 " N^ot at all,'' said the miserable Dragon, though 
 he had no idea what his vertebras were. " I believe 
 I won't take anything more to eat, thank you, ma'am." 
 
 Then the Advanced Young Woman was perfectly 
 happy. She pinched their backbones to see how they 
 were made, counted their claws, and examined their 
 teeth; and the horrible-looking animals were by this 
 time so depressed that they never thought of ob- 
 jecting. 
 
 " Ah ! " murmured she, " what a precious privilege, 
 and how Professor Cervix would envy me ! " It was 
 quite dark before she could tear herself away from 
 them. "Now," said she, at last, gathering up the 
 dishes, "take a good night's rest, in order to be 
 perfectly fresh in the morning. Then I intend to 
 sketch you." 
 
 When the sound of her footsteps had quite died 
 
86 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 away, the Hippogriff looked at the Dragon, and gave 
 a hollow groan. 
 
 " Are you hungry ? " he asked. 
 
 " I could eat a buffalo, hide and all," owned the 
 Dragon frankly. " Still if one were here I should 
 try to resist it. If it 's possible to become a law- 
 abiding vegetarian, I 'm the Dragon to do it." 
 
 " I believe myself the stuff she gave us was rank 
 poison," said the melancholy Hippogriff. " I ate very 
 little of it, but I feel extremely queer." 
 
 " Wait till it begins to nourish you," said the hope- 
 ful Dragon, who felt quite as unsettled as his friend, 
 but had no intention of showing it. " Remember, she 
 told us it was far more nutritious than meat; and if 
 that is true, we shall soon begin to feel it in our legs 
 and claws. Now go to sleep, as I shall, and make the 
 best of it." So saying, he curled his head under his 
 shoulder, folded his claws, and was soon far on the 
 road to Dragon Dreamland. 
 
 Next morning the Advanced Young Woman 
 reached the cottage by the time the early birds had 
 begun to charm away the dusk. She brought a steam- 
 ing kettle of cracked wheat, and this she poured out 
 before the two monsters with so gracious an air that 
 they had n't the heart to tell her they hated the sight 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 87 
 
 of it. Instead they each made her a polite bow, and 
 tried with all their might to force a little down their 
 unwilling throats. 
 
 The young woman, however, never noticed how 
 hard a time of it they had. She was altogether too 
 busy, first in getting her sketching materials together, 
 and then in drawing the outline of her guests from 
 every point of view. She sketched them sitting, stand- 
 ing and lying. She sketched their faces, their claws, 
 their tails. Never, since time began, had there been 
 such an exhaustive study of dragons and hippogriffs. 
 She worked all day long, forgetting to stop for din- 
 ner; and the worst of it was, the Hippogriff thought, 
 she forgot their dinner also, and they languished un- 
 til nightfall without even a dish of oatmeal. How- 
 ever, when she went home, very tired, but with an 
 undaunted resolution still shining on her brow, she 
 left them the cold cracked wheat for supper. That 
 night they did not talk ; their terror of the future was 
 too great. 
 
 Things went on in this way for a week, the Dragon 
 and the Hippogriff trying to become good vegetari- 
 ans, and growing w^eaker every day, and their hostess 
 worrying them almost out of their senses by asking 
 them questions about their previous history, and, as 
 
88 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 the Hippogriff said, trying to pry into their family 
 affairs. The truth was that she knew this to be a splen- 
 did opportunity for studying the habits of animals 
 which most people consider fabulous, and she was 
 determined to make the most of it. 
 
 " Now," said she, on leaving them one night, " I 
 hope you '11 go to bed early, for I want you to look 
 particularly fresh to-morrow. A dear friend of mine, 
 Professor Cervix, is coming to see you, though he 
 does n't in the least suspect you are here. I intend to 
 surprise him, and then we shall consult together about 
 donating you to a museum." 
 
 "What is a museum? " asked the Hippogriff feebly. 
 
 "It is a large collection of animals, shut up in 
 cages," said the Advanced Young Woman, with 
 cheerfulness. " Good-night. Don't give yourselves 
 any uneasiness. Whatever we decide upon, you need 
 take no responsibility. I will arrange everything." 
 
 And the worst of it was, they knew she would. For 
 a long time after she was gone, they said nothing at 
 all; but at last the Hippogriff remarked solemnly: 
 " A hundred years ago or more, the fairies danced 
 one night on the green, and we hippogriff s lay in the 
 woods and watched them. They were practicing the 
 Vanishing Charm." 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 89 
 
 " I remember," said the Dragon, " we dragons were 
 there, too, m the opposite wood. We meant to fall 
 upon you, and eat you up, when the fairies were gone ; 
 but we got so interested in their "Vanishing Charm 
 that we forgot all about it. Do you remember what 
 they sang?" 
 
 " Perfectly," said the Hippogriff . " Shall we try 
 it?" 
 
 " Yes. I don't know where we should be after we 
 had vanished; but nothing could be worse than this. 
 Come, let 's begin. It may take a long time." 
 
 So they sat down in the middle of the room, 
 clasped claws in the Vanishing Grip, and began 
 a solemn chant : — 
 
 " Criss-cross, 
 
 Gain is loss. 
 The gold in the earth is nothing but dross. 
 
 Heigh ho ! 
 
 Who can know 
 But the elves where the flowers of elf-land blow ! " 
 
 "My tail is gone!" said the Dragon, in an excited 
 whisper. 
 
 " So 's my left ear! " cried the Hippogriff. "Come, 
 faster!" 
 
90 THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 
 
 " If you double under as I double over, 
 Then lightning is thunder and redtop is clover. 
 So turn it about, now slow and now fast, 
 Till the end is beginning, and middle is last." 
 
 " There go my claws ! " cried the Hippogriff . 
 
 " And my hind legs ! " said the Dragon. " Oh, how 
 comfortable I am ! I have n't felt so light since I was 
 a baby." 
 
 They chanted faster and faster: they were wild 
 with joy. When the Hippogriff felt his backbone go- 
 ing, he gave an exultant shout to think the Advanced 
 Young Woman would never count his vertebrae again. 
 But that was his last thought in this world. The song 
 was finished, the cottage was silent; the Hippogriff 
 and Dragon had vanished. 
 
 Next morning the Advanced Yoimg Woman went 
 early to her retreat, that she might be sure the two 
 animals were prepared for meeting the learned Pro- 
 fessor Cervix. She opened the door and looked in. 
 Not a trace of living creature was to be seen. Even 
 her precious drawings had disappeared: for the 
 Dragon had laid one claw on them as he chanted the 
 vanishing words, and they also had felt the charm. 
 But the Advanced Young Woman, though she was 
 disappointed, felt no surprise. 
 
THE HIPPOGRIFF AND THE DRAGON 91 
 
 " Of course there 's no such thing, " said she. 
 ^^ They 're nothing but fabulous monsters. I must 
 have dreamed them." 
 
 But at that very moment the Dragon and the Hip- 
 pogriff , young and strong, and no larger than butter- 
 flies, were telHng their adventures to the elf queen, 
 who laughed over them until her poppy throne swayed 
 in the breeze. 
 
 "Trouble yourselves no further about food and 
 shelter," said she, when they had finished. " For those 
 that live in this Vanished Land need no roof to cover 
 them, and honey dew is all their food." 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 IN the Land of the Fair Queens, it would once 
 have been impossible to find a single person who 
 was not of the highest nobility. Kings and queens 
 were as plentiful there as stars in the heavens, and 
 not a soul below the rank of a duke or duchess had 
 ever entered it. If any curious person is anxious to 
 know how this could be, he must understand that all 
 these kings and queens are such as have reigned well 
 for a long period of years, and so are rewarded by 
 entrance into this lovely land, where they grow young 
 again and remain so evermore. Many take with them 
 some faithful friend, a duke or a prince. 
 
 But, as I said, no common folks are admitted. This 
 might prove a very poor arrangement in some coun- 
 tries, where common folks are depended upon to do 
 common work; but here there is no such need. The 
 labor of life is all accomplished by magic — no one 
 knows how or when. Great banquets rise upon pol- 
 ished tables whenever the kings and queens wish to 
 dine or sup. Spirited horses come trotting up to the 
 door, all saddled and richly caparisoned, if a king but 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 93 
 
 shows a desire to ride. The royal beds are always of 
 luxurious down, and the linen is like snow. 
 
 Although nobody knows how all this work is brought 
 about, every one is too well bred to display the least 
 curiosity; and so life goes tranquilly on like a gently 
 moving river, undisturbed by effort or discontent. 
 
 One evening at sunset, all the kings and queens 
 with their courtiers were sitting together upon a 
 smooth green terrace, watching the sky of saffron 
 and rose. 
 
 It was a noble picture, that of gracious women in 
 fine robes, and men who looked as if they could win 
 a battle or a lady's heart, resting in careless postures, 
 with a deep contentment on their faces, such as is 
 never seen outside the land of dreams. 
 
 " Do you ever feel a longing for the other world ? " 
 asked the golden-haired Queen Ilsa of King Olan, as 
 they sat somewhat apart from the others, under a 
 shade of palms, — " the land where we used to live 
 and reign?" 
 
 " No," said King Olan, stroking his beard thought- 
 fully, "not precisely a longing; but I do sometimes 
 dream of a breath from its roses and clover — not so 
 sweet as the flowers of our own country, but still 
 homely and pleasant because we loved them once." 
 
94 THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 " I see jou understand," said Queen Ilsa, with a 
 far-away look in her blue eyes. " I think we should 
 all like it if we had just one person from the Land of 
 Common Folks to keep us in remembrance of those 
 old days. Why not wish for such a person ?" ' 
 
 " That would never do," answered the king de- 
 cidedly. " If we wished, the person would be among 
 us before we could say ' Charlemagne,' and we might 
 dislike him exceedingly. And then, though we could 
 wish him away again, we should have been disturbed 
 and our happy tranquillity broken." 
 
 " Suppose we ask King Sonoro," said she, and ris- 
 ing, they approached a king whose beard was of rip- 
 pling silver, and who, though he looked now so strong 
 and valiant, had reigned sixty good years before he 
 reached this lovely land. 
 
 Then they laid the matter before him, and other 
 kings and queens drew near to listen, until the terrace 
 was like a garden bed, blooming with rich raiment 
 and sparkling with gems from many crowns. 
 
 " Oh, lovely ! " cried the Princess Honeydrop, 
 laughing and clapping her hands as the new idea was 
 told her. " How delightful to have common folks 
 again ! They are so amusing ! I know I should laugh 
 all day long." 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 95 
 
 " They do say odd things," replied King Bellasso, 
 who had been something of a philosopher in his youth. 
 " They often get nearer the root of the matter than 
 they think." 
 
 Meanwhile King Sonoro had been gravely listening, 
 and when the shower of exclamations died down fit- 
 fully, he said : " I see no reason why it should not be 
 done. We won't wish ; we will send Prince Venture- 
 some into the Land of Common Folks to select the 
 right person, and that will make it all the more inter- 
 esting." 
 
 Then all the ladies turned to Prince Venturesome, 
 begging him to bring them back something from his 
 journey; and all the kings gave him so much advice 
 that he felt sober indeed, and got away as soon as he 
 could to put on a new doublet and make ready for 
 his quest. 
 
 "When he appeared again, brave in blue and silver, 
 with his fair hair hanging in curls upon his shoulders, 
 a great white horse, with trappings of blue and silver, 
 stood awaiting him near the terrace, and Prince Ven- 
 turesome sprang into the saddle, kissed his hands to 
 the queens, and rode away, the sim shining on his 
 curls. 
 
 It is very easy to get outside the Land of the Fair 
 
96 THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 Queens, though no one had ever before wanted to do 
 it; and in an instant, quick as the thought that brought 
 him thither, the prince was over the boundary and 
 in the meadow where grew tall green grass and yel- 
 low buttercups. 
 
 " So this is the Land of Common Folks ! " thought 
 he, as he looked about him, while the white horse 
 trotted on. " It is very much like our country, only 
 everything is more sober. The sun seems less bright, 
 the grass is not so green and the brooks sing less en* 
 chantingly. But I like it." 
 
 Still the horse trotted gently through the meadow, 
 going wherever he would, and presently the prince 
 caught a brighter gleam than that of the flowers. 
 It seemed to be a pile of gold, and lo ! as he rode 
 nearer, it was but the hair of a maiden fast asleep 
 by her sheep that were feeding near. Her cheeks 
 were like rose-petals, just overspread with the brown 
 of the nut, her lips were red cherries, and her eyes, 
 as she opened them, shone like sparkling blue lakes. 
 
 " I have found her ! " thought the prince exultingly, 
 though he was somewhat disappointed at having his 
 search so quickly over. "If I take her back with 
 me, surely their Majesties will say I have done 
 well." 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 97 
 
 " Tell me," he said, taking off his cap, " whether 
 you will go with me to the Land of the Fair 
 Queens ? " 
 
 The lovely shepherdess was on her feet in a mo- 
 ment, and her eyes gleamed. 
 
 " I have heard of that country," said she. " They 
 say no one works there, and everybody wears silk 
 and feeds on whipped cream. Is it true ? " 
 
 "Yes, that is all true; and those that live there 
 need some common body to dwell beside them in a 
 commonplace way and remind them of old days." 
 
 " Am I to be that common body ? " said the shep- 
 herdess, an ugly frown appearing on her smooth 
 forehead. " Should I not wear silk, and be a queen ? " 
 
 "N'o. You would be just what you are now; but 
 we should all love you, and you would love us and 
 teach us to cherish sweet old memories." 
 
 The shepherdess hesitated and bit her nails. 
 
 " Yes," she said at length, " I '11 go. You may not 
 mean to give me good clothes, but I dare say I can 
 make over some of the queens' old dresses, and look 
 as well as the best." 
 
 Now the prince felt that this would never do; but 
 as he was very polite, he continued the conversation. 
 
 " Do you live alone ? " he asked. 
 
98 THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 " No, I live with my father." 
 
 " If you should go away, how could he get along 
 without you ? " 
 
 " He could get along exactly as he pleased," said 
 the shepherdess tartly. " I never have had any of the 
 things I wanted in my life. I need a looking-glass, a 
 blue dress, and a set of beads for my neck, and I shall 
 go with anybody that will give them to me." 
 
 The prince whispered one word in his horse's ear 
 and away they flew, leaving the meadow far behind. 
 And to this day the shepherdess, now an old woman, 
 is listening with all her might, hoping in vain for the 
 prince to come. 
 
 " It is terrible," thought he. " But no doubt she is 
 an imusually selfish girl. There can't be many like 
 her. Now this young wood-chopper who is making 
 the chips fly at such a rate looks like an honest fel- 
 low. I '11 try him. Sir Wood-Chopper," he called, 
 as his horse stopped by the tree, " are you a happy 
 man?" 
 
 The wood-chopper ceased working, leaned on his 
 axe and looked at him scornfully. 
 
 " What a question ! " he cried. " No, I should be 
 ashamed to say I was happy in such a world as 
 this." 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 99 
 
 " Poor fellow ! don't you have enough to eat and 
 wear?" 
 
 " Yes, by working for it," replied the man sulkily. 
 
 "And do you not like to work?" 
 
 "Not while fellows no better than I are riding 
 round on white horses with silver trimmings." 
 
 This time it required no word from the prince to 
 start the white horse onward, and many a mile had 
 been east behind them before they forgot the wood- 
 chopper's crusty face. 
 
 The day passed, and the prince had talked with 
 many people. He could find plenty who were willing 
 and glad to seek the Land of the Fair Queens, but 
 none who were neither grumbling nor greedy. One 
 man would go if he could be given a contract to sup- 
 ply the royal palaces with ammunition to repel inva- 
 sion; and when the prince told him that no war ever 
 entered that domain, he remarked that it was his busi- 
 ness to make ammunition, and he had no doubt he 
 could stir up some sort of quarrel even there. An- 
 other would pack his trunk at once if he could be paid 
 at the rate of an ounce of gold an hour, and held off 
 obstinately in hope of making a better bargain ; and 
 most of the women wanted to know what title would 
 be given them, because they did not propose entering 
 
100 THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 a land of queens and taking any inferior rank. So 
 at nightfall the prince had not succeeded, and he lay 
 down to sleep with the white horse waiting beside 
 him. 
 
 Day dawned, and as he rode on again he came pre- 
 sently to the cave of a hermit, a grizzled man, who sat 
 warming himself in the sun. 
 
 " A pleasant morning ! " called the prince, reining 
 in his horse. 
 
 " Pooh ! " growled the hermit. " Why do you make 
 such a fuss about it ? I see no reason why we should n't 
 have pleasant mornings. That 's nothing to be thank- 
 ful for." 
 
 " Is n't anybody thankful in this strange country ? " 
 the prince sorrowfully asked. 
 
 '^ Yes," returned the hermit, " one. There is an old 
 woman in that little hovel down there. She is so con- 
 tented she is almost a fool. I 'm worn out with her 
 perpetual thankfulness; the very sight of her roof 
 makes me sick." 
 
 '^ Tell me about her ! " called the prince eagerly. 
 " Is she always contented ? " 
 
 "Yes, I believe so; she hasn't sense enough to 
 be anything else. Day before yesterday her pig ran 
 away, and she said she could n't blame him for wanting 
 
1 > 
 
 ,3 1 
 
 THE LAND WITHOUT COMM.OJ^ I^OLKS lOi 
 
 to see the world. And when he was driven back, she 
 gave him new milk for supper because it seemed so 
 pleasant to see him in the pen again. Yesterday some- 
 body stole a gold piece from her and she only said, 
 * Poor soul ! I hope it will do him good ! ' We have 
 no patience with her, any of us. " 
 
 Away sprang the white horse, and in a moment he 
 had trotted up to the hovel, where, before the door, 
 sat the cleanest of old women in a blue linen dress 
 and a starched apron. Her face was withered and 
 thin, but it was very sweet. 
 
 " Dear me ! " cried she, as the prince sprang from 
 his saddle. "What a lovely gentleman and what a 
 noble horse ! " 
 
 " Madam," began the prince at once, " I see your 
 cottage is full of holes. Would you like to have it 
 mended ? " 
 
 "I might like it, but a great many other people 
 have no cottages at all. I am fond of fresh air my- 
 self, and these holes let in a good deal. If your 
 Highness has anything to give, let those have it that 
 need it most." 
 
 "Would you like to dress in silk all the rest of 
 your life ? " 
 
 The little old woman smiled. 
 
102 'THE. LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 
 
 " What a funny gentleman ! " quoth she. " Silk ? 
 No, it crackles so I can't abide it. Linen is the thing 
 for me." 
 
 " Do you care to wear a crown ? " 
 
 N"ow the little old woman laughed outright, and 
 taking off her spotless cap, she pointed to her thin 
 gray hair. 
 
 " Should n't I look funny ? " asked she, and polite 
 as he was, the prince did have to laugh. 
 
 Then he sat down and told the old woman exactly 
 what he was seeking, and she listened with the great- 
 est interest. 
 
 "And the pretty queens want somebody to knit 
 their stockings and brush their hair! " she said. "Bless 
 them. Of course, I '11 go — if only I may take my pig 
 and cat with me." 
 
 So Prince Venturesome told her again that she 
 need only live her own quiet life and keep her little 
 black tea-kettle boiling on the fire, as she did in her 
 present home, in order to make everybody happy. 
 
 "And am I to be given so much and do nothing 
 for it ?" she cried. " Well, I 'm of no use to anybody 
 here, and if others need me I '11 gladly go." 
 
 Then the prince lifted her on his horse and mounted 
 also, telling her at the same time to trust her pig and 
 
THE LAND WITHOUT COMMON FOLKS 103 
 
 cat to him. In another moment they were over the 
 boundary and in the Land of the Fair Queens, where 
 they found the eat and pig waiting for them, bristhng 
 with surprise. They rode up to the terrace, and the Httle 
 old woman was amazed as never woman was before : 
 for a great king Hfted her from her seat, and queens 
 came forward and put their arms about her neck. 
 
 "She is hke my old nurse!" cried one; and they 
 all loved and cherished her because she was sweet 
 and homely, like the mint and balm from old-fashioned 
 gardens. 
 
 And though the prince gave the ladies the butter- 
 cups he had brought from the meadows, not one word 
 would he tell concerning his adventures. Yet it was 
 noticed that he was ever after sadder than the other 
 dwellers in that lovely land. 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a very quarrelsome 
 country, and it was always having disputes with 
 its neighbors. Now the king of this country had grown 
 tired of reigning. 
 
 ^'Really," said he, "I think I must take a vaca- 
 tion." 
 
 So he called his family together, all but one second 
 cousin, who was busy making jelly, and took them 
 away to the Islands of the Golden Star; and there they 
 were so happy for the space of three months and one 
 day that they determined to continue their vacation as 
 long as they lived. 
 
 " The king is having such a delightful time, eating 
 plums and playing football," said the messenger his 
 Majesty sent back to the court officers, " that he has 
 decided never to reign any more ; and all his children 
 and nephews and nieces have also begged to be ex- 
 cused from succeeding him." 
 
 "But who will reign?" cried the lord chancellor, 
 shaking his head till the powder flew from it in clouds. 
 
 " I don't know," answered the messenger, making 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 105 
 
 his bow, and backing out of the council. "And the 
 late king says he does n't care. And, if your highness 
 pleases, I am in a great hurry myself to get back to 
 the Islands of the Golden Star, to go on with my own 
 vacation." 
 
 Then he ran away as fast as his legs could carry 
 him, and presently they saw his little boat making sail 
 out of the harbor. 
 
 " What is to be done? " asked the lord chancellor; 
 and the keeper of the two hundred seals also cried, 
 " What is to be done ? " 
 
 " The only member of the king's family left here is 
 his second cousin. Countess Brigitta," said the court 
 genealogist. " Of course, we shall be obliged, accord- 
 ing to the law of succession, to offer her the crown." 
 
 They were all greatly relieved to find the matter 
 settled by such simple means; and so they polished up 
 the crown until it shone anew, placed it on a silken 
 cushion, and bore it away to the house of the Countess 
 Brigitta, whom they found sitting on the front steps, 
 paring apples. 
 
 " Good afternoon," said she, as they came up in 
 solemn procession. " Do take seats. But, my stars and 
 blue ribbons ! What are you doing with the crown ? " 
 
 " We beg your acceptance of it, madam," said the 
 
106 THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 lord chancellor pompously, laying the cushion at her 
 feet. 
 
 Then he went on to tell her what had happened, and 
 that it was really her duty to become queen. 
 
 As he continued, the Countess Brigitta grew more 
 and more sober; and when he had finished, she laid 
 down her paring-knife among the apples, saying sor- 
 rowfully : " Well, what must be, must; but it seems to 
 me I shall be a very poor sort of queen.'' 
 
 " That may be, your Majesty," said the court truth- 
 teller. " But poor queens are not at all uncommon." 
 
 " And I am neither handsome nor majestic," added 
 she. 
 
 "Yery true, your Majesty!" said the truth-teller; 
 " but the gems in a crown sparkle so brightly that it is 
 hard for the sharpest sight to tell what is underneath." 
 
 " And there is actually nothing agreeable to me in 
 the idea of reigning, except, perhaps, the privilege of 
 eating bread and honey in the kitchen." 
 
 " That has been, from time immemorial, a royal pre- 
 rogative," said the lord chancellor, bowing. 
 
 And seeing from all their faces that there was no 
 hope for her, the Countess Brigitta placed the crown 
 on her head, locked up her cottage, and calling the cat 
 and dog, walked away to be queen. 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 107 
 
 For several weeks affairs went on very well, for 
 even a kingdom can take care of itself for some time 
 after it has once been wound up and set going; but 
 one morning, when the queen had settled herself with 
 her knitting in a little rocking-chair she kept beside 
 the throne, the minister of war came in, and told her 
 that an ambassador had arrived from a neighboring 
 kingdom, to find out when it would be convenient for 
 the two nations to begin fighting. 
 
 "But what on earth do they want to fight for?" 
 asked the queen, laying down her knitting, and look- 
 ing at him over the top of her spectacles. 
 
 " Your Majesty, it has been our custom to go to war 
 with somebody every six weeks," said the minister; 
 " and this time it is the turn of King Columba's sub- 
 jects to fight us. If they had not come to arrange pre- 
 liminaries, to-morrow we should have been obliged to 
 seek them. Surely, your Majesty remembers that the 
 late king, your second cousin, was always going to 
 war?" 
 
 " Yes, I do," said the queen; " but I never thought 
 he liked it. Well, send the ambassadors in here." 
 And she rolled up her knitting, pushed the little 
 rocking-chair out of sight, and clambered up on the 
 throne. 
 
108 THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 " Something is due to public opinion," thought the 
 queen, sitting up straight, and trying to look as ma- 
 jestic as she could. 
 
 Presently a great clanking was heard, and the am- 
 bassadors, all in armor, entered, and bowed before her. 
 
 "How-dy'-do?" said the queen. "How very un- 
 comfortable you must be in all that tin-ware! Do 
 take it off, and make yourselves at home." 
 
 The ambassadors looked at one another in surprise; 
 but the armor was hot and heavy, and their leader 
 answered : " If your Majesty would permit us to retire 
 into the antechamber, your Majesty's request shall be 
 obeyed." 
 
 " That 's right," said the queen. "Let us all be com- 
 fortable as long as we can. You may be queens — no, 
 kings — some time ; and then you can't. Take my 
 word for that." 
 
 So they clanked out of the room, and soon returned 
 in their every-day clothing. 
 
 " There ! now you look more at your ease," said the 
 queen. " I 've ordered a cup of tea since you 've been 
 gone. Be it at wedding or funeral, we 're always the 
 better for a cup of tea." 
 
 She poured the tea, and the ambassadors accepted 
 and drank it, though, as they afterwards confessed, 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 109 
 
 * 
 they were so amazed at this pecuhar queen that their 
 
 legs were weak for hours. 
 
 Queen Brigitta chatted so pleasantly that it was 
 some time before they could broach their errand; but, 
 finally, one of them seized a chance to say: ^'Your 
 Majesty, our royal master, King Columba, has sent us 
 to declare war upon your kingdom." 
 
 " So I hear," said the queen frankly. " What does 
 he want to do that for?" 
 
 Now it was illegal in those countries to go to war 
 without an excuse; and so it had become their custom 
 to seize upon some pretext, which no one ever thought 
 of disputing, and immediately begin to fight about it. 
 
 "Your Majesty," said the ambassador, " one of your 
 subjects has declared that the lobsters on our coast 
 have no claws, and that is an insult we cannot brook." 
 
 " Why, he must be a fool if he 's said such a thing as 
 that! " cried the queen. '^ Of course, they have claws ! 
 You can tell your master I 'm very sorry I Ve got such 
 a siily fellow in my kingdom; and, if I can find him, 
 I '11 set him to studying natural history." 
 
 The ambassadors looked at one another in despair. 
 
 " So that 's all settled," said the queen briskly ; " and 
 now we can enjoy ourselves. Have another cup of tea? " 
 
 When the ambassadors presently took their leave, 
 
no THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 they were completely dazed. For the first time in their 
 lives they had disobeyed orders, and failed to declare 
 war; and it was with fear and trembling that they 
 went into the presence of King Columba, and told him 
 exactly what had happened. Fortunately for them, the 
 king dearly loved a joke, and he roared with laughter 
 till the walls rang. 
 
 " Ha ! ha ! " cried he. " Queens must have changed 
 since my day. I '11 ride over there and take a look at 
 her Majesty." 
 
 And the ambassadors thanked their stars that he 
 did not order them to the block. 
 
 After this Queen Brigitta received another declar- 
 ation of war, this time from a king who stated that 
 one of his subjects had been beaten and ill-used by 
 one of hers ; but the queen grew very indignant, and 
 threw her offending subject into prison, while she sent 
 the invalid jelly and gruel and broth and oysters. 
 
 " I 'm ashamed of such carryings-on ! " she said 
 heartily to the ambassadors. " You tell your king so, 
 with my compliments." 
 
 And who could insist on fighting after that ? 
 
 Another sovereign proposed to besiege her capital, 
 because she had in her possession some territory which 
 belonged to him. 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 111 
 
 " Is this so ? " asked Queen Brigitta of her prime 
 minister. " Have we taken land that does n't belong 
 tons?" 
 
 " Yes, your Majesty/' answered he. " "We have held 
 it for over two hundred years ; and thanks to our good 
 swords, we shall hold it always." 
 
 " No, we shan't," said the queen, setting her lips 
 tight, " not while I am queen. You just make out the 
 papers, or whatever you have to do, and give that 
 territory back this minute ! " 
 
 And though all her ministers were angry in their 
 hearts, they dared not disobey ; and the stolen province 
 was restored. Then there was great rejoicing in the 
 land which had formerly held it. Queen Brigitta's 
 name was daily croAvned with blessings; and the people 
 charged their children never, so long as time should 
 last, to fight with the subjects of so just a sovereign. 
 
 Meanwhile King Columba had not given up his 
 purpose of meeting her, and one day he sent a mes- 
 senger to say he would make her a little visit. 
 
 " Delightful ! " cried the queen, who was so good a 
 housekeeper that she loved to have company. " And 
 I '11 invite all the other kings round here." 
 
 Now many of these sovereigns had deadly quarrels 
 with one another, and had formerly kept at the great- 
 
112 THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 est possible distance apart, except upon the battle- 
 field ; but as none knew the others were coming, they 
 all promptly assembled in Queen Brigitta's palace at 
 the appointed time. In deference to their hostess, 
 they of course banished all idea of present hostilities, 
 and followed her to the banqueting-hall with as good 
 grace as they could summon. Still, their thoughts 
 were bitter; but whenever the queen noticed a frown 
 on any of their brows, she would bustle up to one 
 and another, saying : " I 'm afraid there 's something 
 you don't like. Is the meat underdone ? or does it 
 need a bit of mint sauce ? " 
 
 And everybody was ashamed to seem quarrelsome, 
 though each one thought within himself, — ''I '11 settle 
 with him by and by ! " 
 
 The queen's guests stayed with her seven days, 
 and every minute they grew more good-humored and 
 merry. Queen Brigitta had a great deal to talk about. 
 She wanted them to help her plan a hospital and places 
 where little children could run about and play the 
 games they loved best. 
 
 " For of course we must keep ourselves very busy 
 working for our subjects," she said. " They 're so kind 
 to dress us so well and give us so much bread and 
 honey ! " 
 
THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 113 
 
 And the other kings and queens, who had 
 thought always of their own pleasure before the 
 good of the people, hung their heads and were 
 ashamed. 
 
 On the last day, as they sat together, the queen 
 proposed that they should all meet in like manner 
 once a year. 
 
 " For I need you to advise me," she said. " You 
 must have seen that I don't in the least know how to 
 reign. I 'm not a bit wise, and all I can do is to try 
 not to harm anybody. I beg you won't go to war with 
 me," she added, " because there will never be any need 
 of it. If any of my subjects should injure yours, you 
 just tell me, and I'll make them apologize; and if 
 anybody harms me unintentionally, I shall be delighted 
 to forgive him." 
 
 So all these kings and queens joined hands, and 
 swore a solemn truce, after which they promised to 
 meet once a year to talk over the good of their sub- 
 jects. They also planned to keep their soldiers busy 
 in teaching gymnastics to the children and carrying 
 burdens for the old and weak. 
 
 When Queen Brigitta's council saw that other sov- 
 ereigns approved of her, they, too, began to grow 
 very well satisfied. 
 
114 THE UNAMBITIOUS QUEEN 
 
 '' To be sure she does n't know how to reign," 
 they confessed to one another, in the privacy of the 
 council chamber. " But then, she can't do much 
 harm, with us always at hand to keep things in run- 
 ning order." 
 
THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 THE Princess Melita sat by the window of her 
 bower, looking out on the Sunset Lake. There 
 was a frown between her lovely brows, and she 
 drummed with one white hand on the window ledge. 
 She was out of humor, and no one could please her. 
 Now in that kingdom, ill-humor was looked upon as 
 a kind of disease, so that whenever a person gave 
 way to it he was spoken of as ill, and medicine was 
 prescribed for him. 
 
 It was not long before news spread over the castle 
 that the Princess Melita was very ill indeed ; and 
 when it reached her father, the king, he at once sent 
 three of the thirty court physicians to visit her. They 
 went tiptoeing into her room, but in the space of 
 half an hour they came hurriedly out, and proceeded 
 to make their report to the king. 
 
 ^'Is there anything dangerous in my daughter's 
 symptoms?" asked his Majesty, anxiously, hurrying 
 into the chair of state, and clapping on his crown: for 
 he was an ease-loving king, who liked to loll about 
 when no one was by. 
 
116 THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 "Very dangerous, your Majesty," said the head 
 physician solemnly, as he bowed to the ground. 
 
 " Dear me ! " cried the king. "What does she com- 
 plain of ? " 
 
 " Nothing, your Majesty. In fact, one of the symp- 
 toms of her disease is an Ominous Silence. Do you 
 not agree with me," he added, turning to the other 
 two, " that it should be classed under the head of an 
 Ominous Silence ? " 
 
 " Undoubtedly," replied they in concert, " combined 
 with Intermittent and Crusty RepHes." 
 
 " This is serious," said the king. " Such a healthy 
 princess as she has been for eighteen years ! Well, 
 what do you prescribe ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the first physician, " amuse- 
 ment. If that fails, occupation." 
 
 So the king instantly dispatched the court fool to 
 his daughter's apartment, with orders to rehearse his 
 newest tricks and utter his latest quips and jokes; 
 but the princess only looked up when the jester en- 
 tered, and pointed to the door : upon which, being a 
 wise fool, he turned about and left her. 
 
 Then the wise woman was summoned, who knew 
 stories of what had been before the earth was created; 
 and she entered the princess's bower bearing a scroll 
 
''A 
 I— I 
 » 
 
 s 
 
 c 
 w 
 
 Pi 
 I— I 
 
 o 
 
 Q 
 W 
 O 
 
 o 
 Pi 
 Pi 
 
THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 117 
 
 of curious characters, from which she alone could read 
 strange tales of all the things that had ever happened. 
 
 But the princess only said, with a deepening scowl : 
 " Leave me and take your foolish stories with you ! " 
 
 After this, wonderful singers, who knew the songs 
 of the brooks and the whisper of leaves and the voice 
 of the nightingale, assembled at her door, and danc- 
 ers who could float like the snowflake or swim like 
 the swallow ; but Melita would have none of them. 
 
 So the doctors, putting their wise heads together, 
 said: ^^She must have occupation." 
 
 It is perhaps time to tell what was really the mat- 
 ter with the Princess Melita. She was actually tired 
 of happiness, and longed to be miserable, if only for 
 a change. She was tired of being beautiful, and find- 
 ing her bed of rose-leaves and her food of cream and 
 honey; and most of all she was tired of having people 
 love and praise her all day long. 
 
 When the court physicians had concocted their 
 prescription, it read something like this : — 
 
 Canvas ..... 2 ells 
 
 Silk 8oz. 
 
 Needles .... 6 
 Take constantly until symptoms abate. 
 
118 THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 It was a very heroic remedy: for this particular 
 court was an idle one, and tapestry represented the 
 most serious sort of occupation. A trusty messenger 
 was sent to a merchant with the slip of paper, and 
 came running back in haste with a bundle of silks 
 and canvas. This he delivered to the ladies-in-wait- 
 ing, and they, bearing a tiny thimble and these gayly 
 colored threads and fabrics, opened Melita's door. 
 
 " Will it please your Highness to sew ? " they asked, 
 with weak little voices; for, though she had always 
 been the sweetest of noble ladies, disease had sadly 
 altered her. 
 
 "Yes, it will please me," answered the princess, 
 with a wicked gleam in her eyes. " I will work a piece 
 of tapestry, and it shall hang in the palace of the 
 prince who shall wed me." And as she threaded her 
 needle, she thought, in her ill-humor : " I will make the 
 most hideous piece of tapestry ever known, and see 
 if these people who flatter me day after day do not 
 call it lovely." 
 
 Then she set to work, and, being swift with her 
 needle, in a few hours she had designed the ugliest 
 square of tapestry to be imagined. It had a bright- 
 green sky and purple grass. From a blue castle led 
 an alley bordered by scarlet trees, and down the alley 
 
THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 119 
 
 walked crabs and lobsters, dodos and griffins, arm in 
 arm. It was enough to make the boldest shudder. 
 
 When the princess had partly completed it, she 
 began to display it to every one, with a great show 
 of pride in its beauty. 
 
 " Is it not lovely ? " she said to her ladies; and they, 
 fearing to speak the truth to her in her bitter mood, 
 would echo faintly : " Most lovely ! " 
 
 Then the princess would laugh, and day by day 
 her illness increased. 
 
 About this time it became known throughout the 
 neighboring kingdoms that the Princess Melita was 
 old enough to marry, and many princes curled their 
 locks, donned their bravest attire, and came on pranc- 
 ing steeds to ask her hand. 
 
 One morning, when she was working into her tap- 
 estry a hideous animal which she had dreamed out the 
 night before, forty-nine stalwart young princes rode 
 into the courtyard and lifted their plumed hats, bend- 
 ing low as they passed. 
 
 " Aha ! " thought the princess, " if you are no better 
 than my father's courtiers, not one of you will I 
 choose, but rather some obscure road-mender, who 
 will not tell me lies." 
 
 All day she sat in her bower, working ; but as night 
 
120 THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 fell, the king sent word that she must don the finest 
 ofown she had and descend to the cedar hall to enter- 
 tain his guests. 
 
 When the Princess Melita appeared in the great 
 room that evening, not all the reverence felt for her 
 by the forty-nine young princes could restrain the 
 low hum of admiration at her entrance. She was 
 dressed in a long, soft robe of white that swept the 
 floor, and everything about her was white, save her 
 blue eyes, her rosy cheeks and lips, and her golden 
 girdle and golden hair. 
 
 One daring youth hurried forward and led her to her 
 seat; and so beautiful was she that he could not help 
 whispering: " Princess, fairest of all, I love you! " 
 
 Melita flushed, cast down her eyes, and seated her- 
 self in the little chair that was always placed for her 
 beside her father's throne. There she sat for a few 
 moments in sweet confusion, knowing that she would 
 have to make choice of a prince, and looking most 
 womanly and lovely. 
 
 Then of a sudden her disease returned, her eyes 
 sparkled, and she whispered to a lady-in-waiting: 
 " Bring me my tapestry ! " 
 
 And when the fabric was placed in her hand, she 
 became once more mocking and cruel. 
 
THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 121 
 
 "Is it not beautiful?" she asked, holding up the 
 procession of evil-looking creatures before that one 
 bold suitor who had met her first, and who now leaned 
 over the back of her chair. 
 
 "Beautiful, indeed!" sighed the prince; but he 
 spoke absently, not seeing the tapestry, and thinking 
 only of the lady's eyes. 
 
 " And you ? " she said graciously, turning to those 
 who dared not press so near. " Do you not praise my 
 work ? " 
 
 " It is lovely, princess ! " cried one, and another 
 echoed the word, until a chorus of acclamation rose 
 over the wonderful tapestry. Even the king, who had 
 understood from the court physicians that the princess 
 must not be crossed, declared it to be " one of the 
 neatest pieces I ever saw, my dear ! " 
 
 Then the face of the princess grew scornful, and 
 she thought: " I will have none of you, flatterers and 
 liars ! " And gathering up her work, she walked with 
 stately step to her bower. 
 
 So several days passed, and the princess grew more 
 and more wicked, and determined to test every one 
 about her to find out if, by chance, there lived prince 
 or courtier who would not lie. Her father had given 
 her a week to make choice among her forty-nine 
 
122 THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 suitors, and she, finding that flattery moved all their 
 tongues, resolved to cheat them to the end with fair 
 words and gentle looks, and then reject them all. 
 
 On the morning of the fourth day she rose early, 
 and went out alone to walk on the dew- jeweled grass 
 in front of the castle before any of the princes should 
 have roused from their dreams to thoughts of wooing. 
 Now the lady was very sad, and weary of her bitter 
 jest. As she went down the palace steps she saw, 
 standing by the fountain, a beautiful youth whom she 
 recognized as that one of the forty-nine who had first 
 addressed her, and who had not spoken after that first 
 evening, but had stood apart while the others flattered 
 her. His looks were sad as her thoughts, and seeing 
 that, she approached him. 
 
 a Prince," she said, " why have you risen so early?" 
 
 ^' Princess," he answered, dofl&ng his velvet cap, 
 " because I took leave of the king, your father, last 
 night, and this morning I am to ride away." 
 
 " But you have not yet taken leave of me ! " she 
 said angrily. 
 
 The prince hesitated, but only for a moment. 
 
 " Princess," he said, " I came here to ask your hand 
 in marriage. You have made it impossible for me to 
 do that, and so I have only courage to steal away 
 
THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 123 
 
 quietly, not waiting to see you choose one of those in 
 whose company I came hither." 
 
 The princess had grown very pale, and her white 
 hands trembled. 
 
 " Will you tell me why you could not ask me that 
 question?" she said meekly. "Am I not — do I not 
 look as you wished ? " 
 
 " You are beautiful as the day," he cried ; and then 
 he went on sternly, " but you are cruel. You spend 
 your golden hours in making what is ugly instead of 
 that w^hich is fair to see, and then you force others 
 to lie in praising it." 
 
 In spite of her shame, a great joy fell upon the 
 princess, and flushed her face Hke roses with the sun- 
 set on them. 
 
 " Sir," she said, very softly, " do you like my tapes- 
 try?" 
 
 " It is hideous," began the prince severely, when, 
 to his amazement, the princess broke into happy tears. 
 
 " I have been wicked," she cried, " but oh ! if you 
 would not ride away this morning ! " 
 
 And the prince fell on his knees before her and 
 kissed her lovely hands. 
 
 When the court awoke that morning, there was a 
 great outcry for the Princess Melita, until one of her 
 
124 THE WONDERFUL TAPESTRY 
 
 ladies espied her coming toward the castle, leaning 
 on the arm of the happy prince. As soon as they saw 
 her face, they all knew what had happened, and the 
 forty-eight suitors ordered their forty-eight horses to 
 be saddled without delay, while the king stepped for- 
 ward to meet the pair, and kissed his son-in-law on 
 both cheeks. As for the court fool, who had been the 
 only one to understand all this from first to last, he 
 stole up behind the princess and whispered : " Shall I 
 burn the tapestry, my lady ? " 
 
 " No," said the princess humbly, " it shall hang in 
 a room in my husband's house, and if evil moods come 
 upon me, I will go and look at it, and be cured." 
 
THE COURT FOOL HAD BEEN THE ONLY ONE TO UNDERSTAND 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 THERE was once an old woman who had al- 
 ways been obliged to work very hard for a liv- 
 ing, and her only helper was a Little Brown Hen. 
 Every morning the little hen laid a beautiful white 
 eggy and every morning the old woman carried it to 
 the palace for the King's breakfast, and the small 
 silver coin paid her weekly by the royal Treasurer 
 served to buy nearly all her tea and sugar. 
 
 One night the King lay awake for an hour, and 
 among the fancies that occurred to him was one that 
 he was tired of eggs made up of a white and a 
 yolk. 
 
 " I will have, henceforth," thought he, ^^ a white 
 egg one morning and a yellow egg the next." 
 
 So, on the following day, when the little old woman 
 appeared, bringing his egg, he commanded that she 
 should be shown into the room where he sat, with his 
 morning crown on, waiting for breakfast. 
 
 " ^ow, old woman," said he as. she entered, bob- 
 bing and curtsying, " it is our royal will that hence- 
 forth the egg laid for our royal breakfast shall not be 
 
126 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 of two colors, white and yellow, but that the colors 
 shall alternate. One morning we will eat an egg all 
 white, and the next morning one all yellow." 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the old woman, trembling, 
 " that is a thing not to be bought, even by your Ma- 
 jesty. There are no such eggs." 
 
 The King's brows grew black; he was not used to 
 being denied. 
 
 " I have commanded that there should be ! " he 
 thundered. " Find them ! " 
 
 "Your Majesty," said the old woman, trembling 
 still more, " my Little Brown Hen is an excellent hen, 
 and knows all the secrets of her trade ; yet am I will- 
 ing to swear that neither she nor any other hen can 
 give your Majesty eggs all white or all yellow." 
 
 "Is this so?" asked the King, turning to his court- 
 iers, and they bowed their heads, and answered : 
 
 " Your Majesty, it is so. There are no such eggs." 
 
 Then the King fell into a sadness, and because he 
 could not get the eggs, he desired them more than 
 anything in all the world. 
 
 " Old woman," he said at length, looking down at 
 her, "I will give you forty arrals apiece for two hens, 
 one of them to lay white eggs and the other yellow." 
 
 Now an arral is a golden coin of that kingdom, and 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 127 
 
 when the old woman heard of forty such, she reahzed 
 that they would support her for many years, and she 
 plucked up a famt hope that such hens might be 
 found. 
 
 " Your Majesty," said she, " I will do my best. But 
 if I have to go to a far country in search of them, who 
 will bring your Majesty the fresh egg every morning? " 
 
 " If your hen is a trustworthy hen, let her come and 
 lay it at the palace gate herself," said the King, " and 
 the High Treasurer shall keep the money due you 
 imtil your return." 
 
 So the old woman made her curtsy and went away, 
 full of hope and fear. When she reached home, she 
 found in the dooryard her own little hen, who was 
 never idle a moment, picking slugs from the cabbages. 
 
 " Little hen," said the old woman, out of breath as 
 she was, " can you lay an egg all white or all yellow ? " 
 
 " No," said the Brown Hen, quite scornfully, " nor 
 any other hen. "Who ever heard of such a thing? " 
 
 " If I can find anybody that has heard of it," said 
 the old woman, " my fortune is made. Perhaps there 
 are magic hens somewhere, if one could only come 
 across them." 
 
 " Perhaps there are, and magic cabbages and magic 
 worms," said the Little Brown Hen, as she swallowed 
 
128 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 a grub in a very genteel manner, " but I have an idea 
 they don't agree with people as well as the common 
 sort." 
 
 Then her mistress hastily told her that she was go- 
 ing on a journey to find the magic hen, and urged 
 her to be faithful in laying an egg every morning at 
 the palace gate. And though the Little Brown Hen, 
 with tears running down her beak, begged her to 
 give up this perilous adventure, she would not be per- 
 suaded, and set off at nightfall alone. 
 
 "Well," said the Brown Hen, as her mistress dis- 
 appeared over the hill behind the house, " what can't 
 be swallowed whole must be pecked apart. If my 
 mistress is really gone, the only thing for me to do is 
 to scratch along the best way I can." 
 
 So, next morning, she got down early from the 
 perch, went to the palace and laid her egg beside the 
 gate. As she began to cackle, to summon the head 
 cook, who should appear but the King, risen betimes 
 to meditate on magic eggs. 
 
 " Well, well," said he, taking off his outdoor crown 
 to cool his brow, " so you 're the little hen that brings 
 my breakfast. Has your mistress gone on her errand? " 
 
 " Your Majesty, she started last night." 
 
 ^* How soon do you think she will succeed? '^ 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 129 
 
 " In the time that it would take to raise wheat 
 from acorns or turn ducks into worms." 
 
 " Oho ! " said the King, who felt very good-hu- 
 mored, " so you don't think she '11 succeed at all ! " 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the Little Brown Hen, " it 's 
 a thankless task to speak the truth to the cock of a 
 farmyard. Still, since your Majesty asks me, I must 
 say that I know she cannot do the thing you ask." 
 
 The King was not in the least offended at the little 
 hen's honesty. 
 
 " At any rate, you 're not afraid to speak your mind," 
 he said, chuckling. " You 'd never do for a courtier. 
 Here is a golden arral for you to spend in corn." 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the Little Brown Hen, " I 
 am very thankful for the money ; but I beg of you to 
 place it in the hands of the Lord Treasurer, that he 
 may keep it for my mistress. She has left me enough 
 grain to eat, and I pick up many a fat worm in the 
 garden." 
 
 Then the King, excellently entertained, went in to 
 breakfast, with a better appetite than he had had 
 since he was a crown prince young enough to steal 
 jam from the sideboard. Next morning as the little 
 hen laid her egg at the gate, he appeared again, this 
 time on purpose to see her. 
 
130 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 " Little hen," said he, " I have been thinking about 
 you. Why don't you run away and have a good 
 time while your mistress is gone, instead of grubbing 
 along like this?" 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the Little Brown Hen, " it 's 
 a poor hen that scratches only for herself. I like to 
 work for my mistress." 
 
 " But just take my advice, and go off on a vaca- 
 tion," persuaded the King. "Your mistress never 
 will know." 
 
 Then the little hen forgot that she was in the pre- 
 sence of a king, and her feathers ruffled with indig- 
 nation. ' 
 
 " I never heard such talk — no, not since I was a 
 pullet," cried she. " Even a hawk will feed her own 
 young ones, and who am I that I should desert my 
 mistress ? " 
 
 With that she ran off home, cackling as she went, 
 and the King, delighted at being treated like an 
 ordinary mortal, walked smiling in to breakfast, and 
 on his way he ordered the Lord Treasurer to lay aside 
 four golden arrals for the Little Brown Hen. 
 
 Next morning when the King appeared, the little 
 hen was very much subdued and made him a low 
 bow without daring to look in his face. 
 

 I NEVER HEARD SUCH TALK — NO, NOT SINCE I AVAS A PULLET!" 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 131 
 
 " Your Majesty," said she, " those that are raised 
 in the barnyard have rough voices. I hope your Ma- 
 jesty will pardon the violence of my speech yester- 
 day." 
 
 "Nay, little hen, you were quite right," said the 
 King. " And I was only testing you to see whether 
 you were a good little hen or a selfish and idle one. 
 And now I find you are sound as your own eggs, and 
 I like you." 
 
 Then the little hen's heart was filled with joy, and 
 she dared look up at the King again, and answer him 
 in her own dry voice. 
 
 " Your mistress has been gone a long time looking 
 for my magic eggs," he said. ^' Do you think any- 
 thing can have happened to her ? " 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the little hen, looking very 
 grave, " it 's ill work leaving a safe roosting-place so 
 near nightfall. I do feel worried about my mistress; 
 I wish every hour she had n't gone." 
 
 " I 've been sorry I sent her," said the king, " though 
 I did get a little tired of whites and yellows together. 
 On the whole, though, I am glad she went, for other- 
 wise I might never have had a chance to hear your 
 excellent conversation; and I have now resolved, 
 since you give such good advice, to make you my 
 
132 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 chief minister, so that I can consult you every 
 day." 
 
 " Your Majesty," said the little hen, " let them that 
 have weak wings content themselves with a low roost. 
 I can give your Majesty a breakfast, but it is not 
 fitting that a hen should be among your ministers." 
 
 No one likes to have his favors rejected, and kings, 
 in such circumstances, are apt to be displeased. 
 
 " Yery well, do as you like," said the King, with 
 dignity. " But I think you are a trifle selfish. If you 
 have good counsel, and I want good counsel, why 
 should n't you allow me to buy it of you ? " 
 
 " Because, your Majesty, those that go into a strange 
 field for grasshoppers are likely to find only snakes. 
 If I should become one of your Majesty's ministers, 
 the others would grow jealous and jeer at me, and I 
 should end in the pot of the royal kitchen. But if I 
 can answer any question for your Majesty, I shall be 
 only too glad to do it whenever I come to bring my 
 morning ogg.^^ 
 
 " Wise little hen," cried the king, delighted. " We 
 will tell nobody, and you shall be my counselor, at a 
 salary of four golden arrals a day." 
 
 Thus it happened that every morning he asked her 
 some question, and so well pleased was he with her 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 133 
 
 answers that he rehed on her more and more, and so 
 great a wisdom did he begin to show in the manage- 
 ment of affairs that the state officials said to one 
 another : 
 
 " The King is waking up ! We, too, must be alert 
 and vigilant." And the kingdom grew daily in power. 
 
 Meanwhile the old woman journeyed on and on, 
 and after many hardships she came to a land where 
 two sisters, called the Wonder- Workers, dwelt to- 
 gether in a fine castle, and studied the art of magic. 
 One evening, tired and footsore, the old woman toiled 
 up the path leading to their castle. 
 
 ^^Can you tell me," she asked of one sister, who 
 sat at a casement looking down over the park, " can 
 you tell me of any recipe that will make an egg all 
 white or an egg all yellow ? " 
 
 "If we can't, nobody can," said the Wonder- 
 Worker haughtily. " Sister, do you hear ? Can we 
 tell her?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," said the other Wonder- Worker, appear- 
 ing at the casement, ^'it is quite simple. You must 
 feed your hen on rice and snow one day and the pol- 
 len from the inside of a lily the next day. At least, I 
 think so ; I can't imagine any better diet." 
 
 Then the old woman's heart was glad indeed. 
 
134 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 "Could you find me some hens to lay such eggs?" 
 she asked joyously. " And if you succeed in making 
 them do it, the King of my country will pay me forty 
 golden arrals, and twenty of them you shall have for 
 your pains.'' 
 
 " If we can't do it, nobody can," said the sisters. 
 " But you must first find us the pollen, the snow and 
 the rice." 
 
 The old woman had a little money — all her store 
 — tied up in a corner of her handkerchief, and she 
 immediately brought it forth, and sent messengers in 
 different directions, some to fetch pollen from the 
 marshes and some to bring snow from the mountain- 
 tops. This was very expensive work, but her heart 
 was set on fulfilling the King's wish. 
 
 At the end of a month her money was gone, and, 
 though the two Wonder- Workers had brought her 
 egg after egg, they were all of the same sort. 
 
 " Deary me, deary me ! " cried the old woman. " My 
 money is gone, and I 've nothing to show for it. I 'd 
 better never have left my home." 
 
 "Why, of course," said one of the sisters, "you might 
 have known the fashion of eggs was n't to be changed. 
 We could have told you that; but when people ask 
 us to do impossible things, we 're obliged to try." 
 
THE ROAD THAT LED TO HER HOME 
 
THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 135 
 
 The old woman did not reproach them, for she saw 
 they were like many people who pretend to wisdom 
 though they have it not; but she turned about sor- 
 rowfully, and took to the road that led to her home. 
 Many a weary day it was before she reached her little 
 house, and when she did who should fly forward into 
 her very arms but the Little Brown Hen. 
 
 " Oh, my dear mistress," she cried, "how glad I am 
 to see you ! " 
 
 And the old woman, remembering that she had one 
 trusty friend, sat down on her doorstep and wept joy- 
 ous tears. 
 
 Next morning, she went sadly to the palace with 
 the little hen, and confessed to her Royal Master that 
 her mission had failed. 
 
 " Well, well ! " said the King good-naturedly, " it 
 might have been expected. But your going was 
 lucky." 
 
 Then he went on to tell her how he had growTi to 
 admire and trust the Little Brown Hen, and how she 
 had earned for her mistress, by her eggs and good 
 counsel, four hundred golden arrals, which had been 
 placed in the hands of the Lord Treasurer. 
 
 " My little hen," cried the old woman, turning to 
 her faithful friend, as she stood modestly beside the 
 
136 THE LITTLE BROWN HEN 
 
 egg she had brought, "you have made both our 
 fortunes. With four hundred golden arrals we shall 
 always be rich, even should we live for many years. 
 How can I treat you kindly enough to pay you ? " 
 
 " It was my duty to keep pecking away," said the 
 Little Brown Hen. " And often it happens that there 
 are more worms in the home garden than on the 
 public road." 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 ONCE there were two sisters named Rosebloom 
 and Thornbloom. They were both very beauti- 
 ful, and Rosebloom was always happy and contented. 
 She loved to sit on the door-stone, hour after hour, 
 knitting, and took pleasure in watching her plants 
 and birds; but Thornbloom was never at rest from 
 one day to another, because she longed to be finer 
 and more prosperous than everybody else. 
 
 " I will be a princess," she said at length, one day, 
 " and I will live in a castle, and marry no one but a 
 prince." 
 
 So she ran to tell this resolution to her father, because 
 she was determined to lose no time in carrying it out. 
 
 " Dear me," said her father, who was a very kind 
 and indulgent old man, " you can't be a princess, you 
 know. I am not a king." 
 
 " That makes no difference," said Thornbloom, 
 pressing her lips together in an obstinate way she 
 had. *^I will be a princess, and you must give me a 
 castle to live in. Nothing else in the world will con- 
 tent me." 
 
138 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 The poor father sighed, for he had often been 
 called upon to do quite as difficult things for this 
 troublesome daughter; and then, as usual, he set about 
 thinking how her wish could best be gratified. At 
 last, after wearing his thinking-cap day and night for 
 nearly a week, he said to her : — 
 
 "About twenty miles from here is a ruined castle, 
 which stands on my land. If you like to go there and 
 live for a while, you are perfectly welcome to it. I 'm 
 afraid you won't be very comfortable ; but this is the 
 only castle I know anything about, and perhaps 
 it will prove all the more satisfactory for being so 
 ancient." 
 
 Then Thornbloom was greatly delighted, and set 
 about making preparations for her journey. She 
 packed her most gorgeous apparel, because of course 
 a princess could have no need of common clothes; 
 and she borrowed a half-finished piece of tapestry on 
 which Rosebloom was at work. Thornbloom herself 
 cared nothing about such occupations, and sometimes 
 never saw her thimble for a week at a time; but she 
 had heard that a princess was often found embroider- 
 ing by the prince when he arrived, and she thought 
 it would be safer to keep something of the kind on 
 hand. Then one bright morning she set out for her 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 139 
 
 castle, riding on a little palfrey, accompanied by her 
 maid, a cook, and an old man-servant of her father's, 
 to do the work. 
 
 Her father stood looking after them, his eyes full 
 of tears ; and Rosebloom actually lost three rounds of 
 knitting in waving farewells. 
 
 Thornbloom was in high spirits now that she had 
 at last become a princess. To be sure, she was not 
 over-comfortable, because she had thought it would 
 be proper to wear a long gown of thin embroidered 
 silk; and this fluttered in the breeze and wound itself 
 about the palfrey's legs in a very embarrassing man- 
 ner. Still, Thornbloom w^as sure she should know bet- 
 ter how to manage it when she had been longer a 
 princess. She had given her servants orders that they 
 should on no account speak to her unless they had 
 been first addressed; and as she was afraid it would 
 not be dignified to talk much with them, she dared 
 not speak first. Moreover, she had an idea that in call- 
 mg to them she ought to say, " Ho, slave ! " " Come 
 hither, mmion! " or something in that romantic style; 
 and she knew that in case she did the servants would 
 very likely turn straight about and go home. 
 
 The day wore on; and as the sun rose high in 
 heaven, Thornbloom grew tired and thirsty, and told 
 
140 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 Hegner, the man-servant, to stop as soon as he saw 
 signs of a brook or spring, where they might drink 
 and water the horses. But when they did come to a 
 little stream in a green valley, it was discovered that 
 Thornbloom's golden cup had been packed at the 
 very bottom of the chest, and that it would cost great 
 delay to reach it. 
 
 " Very well," said she to herself, " of course I can't 
 drink at all. A princess should use a golden cup." 
 
 So she sat on her palfrey, looking at the water in 
 a dignified manner, and pretending that she was quite 
 above wanting any, while her maid drank from a leaf, 
 and the other servants from their hands. Her lips and 
 tongue were quite parched, and her eyes filled with 
 tears of disappointment and longing ; but she was still 
 determined, at all hazards, to be a proper princess. 
 
 Toward the middle of the afternoon a gray tower 
 loomed up against the sky, and Thornbloom's heart 
 grew joyful. 
 
 " Ah ! " cried she : " that must be my castle. Heg- 
 ner, is not that my castle ? " 
 
 " I believe it is the old ruin, miss," said Hegner 
 rather crossly. He was a trusty servant; but being 
 also rheumatic, he could scarcely have been expected 
 to relish such an adventure at his time of life. 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 141 
 
 "Try to remember, Hegner, to address me as 
 * Your Highness/ " said Thornbloom severely. " Do 
 not let me have to speak to you about it again." 
 
 So they moved on, Hegner shaking his gray head 
 sorrowfully, and saying to himself, "Mad! mad as 
 five hatters!" But Thornbloom, though she heard 
 him quite plainly, held her chin high in air, and pre- 
 tended to be thinking of other and more lofty things. 
 
 Presently, as they rode along, came a clatter of 
 hoofs behind, and a youth dashed up to them on a 
 great red horse. He had the beauty of brown eyes 
 and white teeth, and he took off his cap to Thorn- 
 bloom, with a charming grace. 
 
 " My adventures have begun," thought she. " This 
 is surely a prince ! " 
 
 The youth rode along quite near her side, and 
 seemed desirous of talking w^ith her; but, being both 
 polite and modest, he would not speak first. 
 
 " Good-morrow, fair sir," said Thornbloom, smihng 
 upon him graciously. 
 
 "Good-morrow, madam," said the youth. "Your 
 palfrey looks as if he had traveled far to-day. The 
 next town is many miles away ; and, unless you have 
 other accommodation for the night, my grandmother 
 would be glad to have you pasture your beasts in her 
 
142 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 field, and she will find room in the house for you and 
 your servants. She bade me ride after you to say 
 so." 
 
 " Your grandmother, — the queen ? " asked Thorn- 
 bloom. 
 
 The youth laughed loud and long. 
 
 " Oh, dear, no," he said, " she is n't a queen. She is 
 a dear old lady, and she lives in that pretty stone house 
 you have just passed. Whatever could have made you 
 think she was a queen ? " 
 
 " And are n't you a prince, then ? " inquired Thorn- 
 bloom, in a tone becoming rapidly colder. " An en- 
 chanted prince, perhaps," she whispered eagerly. 
 " Don't be afraid of saying so. I won't tell." 
 
 He laughed again. 
 
 " Why, I am only Eric, the gardener," he said. " I 
 raise wheat on our little farm, and send it to the mill 
 to be ground, and then sell it for a pretty penny. 
 Grandmother and I are not rich; but we have all we 
 want, and we are as happy as the day is long." 
 
 Thornbloom privately thought this very delightful ; 
 but she knew quite well that, being a princess, she 
 ought not to feel interested in so humble a person. 
 
 " Your worthy grandmother was very kind to offer 
 us the shelter of her roof," she said, with dignity. 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 143 
 
 "But our own castle is now in sight. That is our 
 destination." 
 
 She waved her hand toward the gray tower, and 
 Eric turned his eyes upon the pile of stones. 
 
 " Not the ruin ! " he cried in amazement. " Bless 
 my soul ! You don't mean to say you are going to 
 live in the ruin ? " 
 
 " Our castle has fallen somewhat into decay," said 
 Thornbloom, rather offended, though striving still to 
 be majestic. " But doubtless we shall restore it to its 
 former greatness." 
 
 Eric was evidently much amused; but he drew his 
 mouth together into a proper knot, and, gravely lift- 
 ing his cap, said he would bid the princess good-day. 
 She bowed, with as much cordiality as seemed becom- 
 ing to one of her station ; but, just as Eric turned his 
 horse about, old Hegner piped up — 
 
 "Miss Thornbloom, perhaps the young man can 
 tell us where to go for provisions." 
 
 " Of course, I can," said Eric promptly. " I will 
 bring you some bread and meat myself; and indeed, 
 if you like, I will supply you every morning with 
 vegetables and fruit from my home garden." 
 
 " That will do excellently well," said Thornbloom, 
 and she wanted to add, "Thou art a worthy youth'"; 
 
144 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 but somehow she did not dare. Eric looked as if he 
 might laugh at any instant; and there was a grave, 
 straightforward look in his eyes which made Thorn- 
 bloom feel rather small and young. 
 
 Eric cantered away on the big red horse, and 
 Thornbloom, with her train, entered the courtyard 
 of her castle. It was a forbidding pile, half in ruins, 
 full of great open spaces, through which the swallows 
 flew back and forth, and where one within could catch 
 glimpses of the blue sky. Thornbloom dismounted 
 and entered, holding her silken skirts daintily from 
 the ground. She was conscious of making a very 
 pretty picture in the dark place ; but Helda, the maid, 
 kept muttering : " Well, if ever I Who 'd have thought 
 't was such a hole ! " And once, when a startled bird 
 flew out of a corner and whizzed past, she gave a loud 
 shriek, and seized her mistress's arm. 
 
 " Unhand me, girl," said Thornbloom calmly, de- 
 termined that no one should see her flinch. " Helda, 
 I shall occupy the tower: it seems to be the only part 
 of the castle which is quite firm. You may have the 
 little room next mine, and the cook will take the base- 
 ment. Hegner can choose his own sleeping-place." 
 
 Then while Helda went about sobbing and giving 
 little shrieks whenever she startled a rat or touched 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 145 
 
 a spot of mildew, Thornbloom unbraided her hair, 
 because she had always understood that a princess 
 wears hers unconfined, and sat down by the window 
 to think how very satisfactory it all was, and how she 
 had at last reached her proper station in life. She was 
 terribly hungry, but, of course, being a princess, she 
 could not lower herself so much as to think about 
 that; and after telling Helda carelessly to bring her 
 a cup of wine and a bit of bread, she showed no more 
 interest in the subject. And as Hegner was cross, 
 and the cook frightened out of her wits at the sight 
 of a dirty kitchen and a tumble-down fireplace, it 
 was quite late at night before the golden cup could 
 be unpacked and the poor princess given her supper. 
 
 She ate it ravenously, and then rolled herself up in 
 a fur cloak, and lay down on a long table, because it 
 had been discovered that, whatever there might have 
 been once, there was now not a single bedstead to be 
 found in the castle. 
 
 Thornbloom was awake at the first peep of day ; 
 and when she rose, her royal bones were stiff as 
 badly-jointed iron. 
 
 "It's all that table!" thought she. "There's no 
 doubt whatever that I shall have to send home for a 
 bedstead/' 
 
146 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 She put on a lovely sea-green silk, embroide* t;d with 
 gold, tied her golden hair with a silken snood, and, 
 after looking in her mirror (she had not forgotten that, 
 though she had the bedsteads), she went down the 
 etone stairs to breakfast. Early as it was, Eric had 
 brought some meat and fine white bread, some red 
 apples and purple grapes*, and he was flying about 
 the bare dining-hall, doing a hundred things at once. 
 He had built a roaring fire in the old fireplace, he 
 had set a vase of roses beside Thornbloom's plate, 
 and he was whipping up a frothy drink of eggs and 
 milk, while the cook stood in the doorway, and shook 
 her sides at sight of so fine a helper. 
 
 Old Hegner was smiling as he threw more sticks 
 on the fire, and Helda, standing near one of the win- 
 dows, her finger in her mouth, was saying, " What a 
 funny gentleman ! " when Thornbloom came in. And 
 Thornbloom, though she meant to be dignified, as 
 became her position, could not forbear smiling, and 
 saying very kindly : " Good-morning, sir ! " 
 
 Eric bowed low, and gravely arranged the stool on 
 which she was to sit. Then he signed Helda to pour 
 the beverage he had made into the golden goblet. 
 
 " It seems to me," said Thornbloom, as she tasted it, 
 " that you must be a cook, sir, and a very good one." 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 147 
 
 " My grandmother told me how to make it," said 
 Eric. " She said you would be tired and perhaps ill 
 after your long journey, and that you must have del- 
 icate food." 
 
 As Thornbloom ate, her spirits began to rise. 
 
 " Have you Hved in this neighborhood a long time? " 
 she asked Eric. 
 
 " A long time : ever since 1 was a little boy." 
 
 " Then you must know whether there are any en- 
 chanted knights or ladies hereabout." 
 
 '' I don't think it 's likely," said Eric, rather puzzled. 
 " I know all the country people for miles around." 
 
 ^' Do you ever see any fairies ? " 
 
 " Not one." 
 
 " Nor a witch, nor an enchanter in a cave, nor a 
 dragon, or griffin, or anything of that sort ? " 
 
 " I am quite sure there is nothing of the kind here," 
 answered Eric sadly. 
 
 " What a poor, miserable neighborhood ! " said the 
 princess pettishly. " I wish my castle had been erected 
 somewhere else." 
 
 But she soon recovered from her ill-humor ; and as 
 Eric proposed showing her the old garden that had 
 once been finely kept, but was now enlivened only by 
 an occasional sweet-william or pink, trying to live 
 
148 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 and bloom, they walked there until noon. Thornbloom 
 meanwhile tried hard to remember that she was a prin- 
 cess, and must not only be dignified but occasionally 
 disagreeable ; and Eric behaved as if he thought her 
 the noblest lady in the land. 
 
 Other days went on quite like this first one, except 
 that Eric's jokes did not always avail in keeping the 
 servants good-tempered. Hegner declared that he 
 was " too old for this beastly camping out." Helda 
 screamed so much over rats and bats that she grew 
 hoarse, and the cook declared that just as soon as she 
 could catch a ride, back to master's she 'd go, that 
 she would. And at last, from breathing the dampness, 
 and lying awake at night in fear of gnats and robbers, 
 poor Princess Thornbloom fell ill, and lay there shiv- 
 ering in her tower-room, crying out that a dragon 
 had carried her away into an enchanted castle, and 
 that she would give all the gold in her purse and all 
 her golden hair to any one who would help her out. 
 Then suddenly it seemed to her that a lovely little 
 creature with silver hair and kind blue eyes came and 
 looked at her, and she felt better. 
 
 "You must be a good fairy," said Thornbloom 
 feebly; and, as she said it, she was carried out into 
 the sunshine and away into a heavenly room, all blue 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 149 
 
 flowers and bright sunlight, and placed on a white 
 bed. Then she shut her eyes, and went fast asleep. 
 
 When Thornbloom woke, the good fairy was still 
 beside her, softly stroking her hands and smiling at 
 her; and the sunny room, painted over with blue for- 
 get-me-nots, seemed also to smile. 
 
 "Are you the good fairy?" asked Thornbloom 
 again. 
 
 " Ko, dear," said the pretty old lady, " I am just 
 Eric's grandmother. You were sick, my dear, and we 
 brought you here to get well." 
 
 " Was it yesterday ? " 
 
 " Bless the child, no ! it was weeks ago. Now shut 
 your eyes, you pretty creature, and sleep." 
 
 Thornbloom did exactly as she was told. She slept 
 and ate, and slept and drank, for a good many weeks 
 more, while old Hegner sunned himself on the porch, 
 and the other two servants helped about the work. 
 And at last she knew she was well, though still very 
 weak; and sitting by the window one day, she began 
 talking with Eric of the things that had happened. 
 
 " Your grandmother is the loveliest old lady in the 
 world ! " 
 
 " I think so," said Eric modestly. 
 
 " And your work is so interesting, — to raise the 
 
150 ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 
 
 wheat, and then have it ground into flour ! It is far, 
 far better than being a knight or a prince, and doing 
 nothing but stand about idle." 
 
 " It is better for me," said Eric. 
 
 " And this house," went on Thornbloom, " it is so 
 clean, so sweet, so fragrant. Why, I think it is the 
 most charming place ever seen ! " 
 
 " If you were not a princess," said Eric softly, " 1 
 should ask you to marry me, and live here always." 
 
 " Why,'' said Thornbloom, who had not for a mo- 
 ment dreamed of such a thing, " I think that would 
 be perfectly beautiful ! " 
 
 It was not many weeks before Thornbloom and her 
 husband set out with all the servants on a visit to her 
 old home. And when they reached the house, Thorn- 
 bloom was alarmed to see that Kosebloom was not 
 sitting in the doorway, knitting; she was sure her 
 sister must be dead. So she began weeping bitterly, 
 and Eric could not comfort her; but as they ap- 
 proached still nearer, she saw that Rosebloom was 
 walking round the garden with a handsome youth, 
 wearing a sword, and a feather in his cap. 
 
 "Ah," cried she, "it is Eosebloom!" and Rose- 
 bloom, hearing her voice, turned with a cry of joy, 
 and they fell into each other's arms. 
 
ROSEBLOOM AND THORNBLOOM 151 
 
 When they had wept, and kissed each other many 
 times, Eosebloom said in a whisper : " That is Prince 
 Fanciful, and I am going to marry him, dear Thorn- 
 bloom. He stopped at the gate, one day when I was 
 knitting, and told me he never saw such fine stitches." 
 
 " But you do not knit so much now ! " said Thorn- 
 bloom, turning back with a sly smile, before rushing 
 into the house to find her father. 
 
 "No," said Rosebloom, looking a little ashamed, 
 "he is afraid I shall spoil my eyes and my finger-tips. 
 Why, Thornbloom, you have found your prince, too ! " 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 ONCE upon a time there was a Mother Breeze, 
 and she lived, with her seven children, inside 
 a hollow tree. Sometimes they thought of moving, be- 
 cause their house was old and leaky, and there was al- 
 ways a draught. But the Mother Breeze put it off, 
 for, said she, when the children were old enough to 
 travel they could go West and live with their Grand- 
 father Cyclone, who was very rich and owned a 
 prairie. 
 
 As it was, the Mother Breeze had to work for a liv- 
 ing; and one morning she got up and said to the seven 
 Little Breezes : " It is going to be very hot to-day." 
 
 Now the seven Little Breezes knew what that 
 meant : for when it was hot their mother always had 
 work to do, fanning the Sunset Lake. 
 
 So they said: *^0h, let us go with you! " 
 
 "No, my dears," said the mother, tying on her 
 work-apron and her stoutest wings. " If I were go- 
 ing for an hour, you might go. Or if I were going for 
 two hours, you might go. But a whole day is too 
 much." 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 153 
 
 With that she began to look about for the leaf 
 which was always pasted over the door when she was 
 away: and at that the Little Breezes began to cry. 
 They cried exactly as they did every time their mother 
 left them, and they said exactly the same thing : — 
 
 '^ Oh, it will be dark in here, and we can't see to play ! " 
 
 But the mother had heard it so many times that she 
 paid no attention. She only said : " If the Green Gob- 
 lin comes, be sure you don't let him in." 
 
 " May n't we fly out and play with him ? " asked all 
 the Little Breezes, though they knew quite well how 
 dangerous that would be. 
 
 " No, no," said the mother. " It is going to be a 
 hot day, and he would breathe you all up as quick as a 
 wink." 
 
 " May we speak to him ? " asked the Little Breeze 
 that liked to talk. 
 
 " Yes, you may speak to him. Only you must not 
 let him in." 
 
 " May we make fun of him ? " asked the Little 
 Breeze that liked to laugh. 
 
 " Yes, you may make fun of him. Only you must 
 not let him in.'' 
 
 " May we scold himV " asked the Little Breeze that 
 liked to make other people do what he said. 
 
154 THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 " Yes, you may scold him. Only you must not let 
 him in." 
 
 " May we praise him ? " asked the Little Breeze 
 that liked to have everybody happy. 
 
 " Yes, you may praise him. Only you must not let 
 him in." 
 
 " May we listen to him? " asked the Little Breeze 
 that had sharp ears. 
 
 " Yes, you may listen to him. Only you must not 
 let him in." 
 
 " May we love him ? " asked the Little Breeze that 
 liked to love everybody. 
 
 " Yes, you may love him. Only you must not let 
 him in." 
 
 " May we invite him to supper ? " asked the Little 
 Breeze that liked to give people things to eat. 
 
 " Yes, you may invite him to supper. Only you 
 must not let him in." 
 
 All this time the Mother Breeze was busy mixing 
 some magic paste; and when she had finished it she 
 went out, laid the leaf over the door, and pasted it 
 round the edges. And while she worked, the Little 
 Breezes screamed at the top of their voices, hoping 
 she might leave the door open, or even stay at home. 
 
 " Oh ! oh I " they cried. " It 's very dark in here ! " 
 

 SHE BLEW ON THE PASTE FOR A MOxMENT 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 155 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! it 's very tight in here ! " 
 
 " Oh ! oh ! it 's very cold in here ! " 
 
 But the Mother Breeze was quite used to that, and 
 when she had done pasting, she blew on the paste for 
 a moment to be sure it was dry, and then she shook 
 the leaf to see if it was firm; and with her mind at 
 ease, she hurried off to the Sunset Lake. 
 
 Now as soon as the Little Breezes were quite sure 
 she had gone, they stopped screaming and began to 
 whistle merrily. They whistled for an hour, and then 
 they had a game of tag, and then a game of puss-in- 
 the-corner, and then a game of race-round-the-table. 
 And when at last they heard the Sun outside saying 
 it was twelve o'clock, they got their seven little por- 
 ringers and sat down contentedly to eat their dinner. 
 And as they were eating the last drop, what should 
 they hear outside but a Noise ! So they set down their 
 porringers very softly and held their breaths to listen. 
 
 And they whispered in each other's ears, the oldest 
 Little Breeze to the Next Little Breeze, and the Next 
 Little Breeze to the Next Little Breeze : " It is the 
 Green Goblin. For he never comes without a Noise." 
 
 " Little Breezes," said some one from outside, " Little 
 Breezes, are you at home? I have come to call." 
 
 It was the voice of the Green Goblin, and they 
 
156 THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 knew it well. So the oldest Little Breeze whispered 
 to the Next Little Breeze, and the Next Little Breeze 
 to the Next Little Breeze, and so on : " It is the Green 
 Goblin." 
 
 Now the Little Breeze that liked to talk put her 
 finger on her lip and looked at all the others. And 
 when they were perfectly still, she called to the Green 
 Goblin: "We are not at home to-day." 
 
 " Oh, yes, you are, Little Breezes," said the Green 
 Goblin; " for I hear you talk." 
 
 " You don't hear us at all, for we are very still,'' 
 said the Little Breeze that liked to talk. " But we 
 hear you, and we know you are the Green Goblin, for 
 you never go about without a Noise." 
 
 "Indeed, I am not the Green Goblin," said the 
 visitor earnestly. " I am a beautiful fairy, and I have 
 come to call." 
 
 " No, you are not a fairy," said the Little Breeze 
 that liked to talk. " Fairies go about softly alone, and 
 you have come with a Noise." 
 
 Then the Green Goblin turned away, and they 
 heard him muttering off through the bushes, and Noise 
 was with him. And the Little Breezes began to whistle, 
 as they washed their porringers and hung them on 
 the wall. 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 157 
 
 Meantime the Green Goblin had sped away to the 
 Thunder, and said to him : " I want to get rid of this 
 Noise. Can you do anything with him?" 
 
 " Oh, yes," growled the Thunder, " and forty Hke 
 him. Only you must promise not to have anything to 
 do with him again, or any of his family, for I like to 
 keep the ^Noises to myself." 
 
 "I promise," said the Green Goblin; and he went 
 back softly to the tree, and there he said again : " O 
 Little Breezes, are you at home? I have come to 
 call." 
 
 " Who are you?" asked the Little Breeze that liked 
 to laugh. 
 
 And he answered : " I am a beautiful fairy, and I 
 have come to call." 
 
 Then the Little Breeze began to laugh so that she 
 could hardly speak, and she said: "Ho! ho! you a 
 fairy ! fairies have sweet voices, and your voice is the 
 voice of a Green Goblin." 
 
 Then the Green Goblin sped away, and he said 
 to the Brook : " Brook, give me some of your beauti- 
 ful voice." 
 
 Now the Brook was singing all to herself, and she 
 kept on singing as if she wove the new words into 
 her song : — 
 
158 THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 " That will I do, only you must promise never to 
 stir up my waters again so that the cattle cannot 
 drink." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin; and he went 
 back softly to the tree, and said in the loveliest 
 voice that ever was : " Little Breezes, are you at 
 home? I am a beautiful fairy, and I have come to 
 call." 
 
 Now the Little Breezes were so enchanted with 
 his voice that for a moment they were inclined to blow 
 down the leaf and let him in. For, though their mother 
 had pasted it very tight, she had always told them 
 that if something really important happened, such as 
 a fire in the forest or an axe in the tree, they must 
 blow with all their might and get away. 
 
 " But she never told us we might open it to a fairy," 
 said the Little Breeze that liked to talk. 
 
 " ]N'o, but she lets us play with fairies when we are 
 out," said the Little Breeze that liked to give people 
 things to eat, " and she lets us invite them home to 
 supper." 
 
 " I '11 tell you," said the Little Breeze that liked to 
 scold, " even if it is a fairy, it will be more fun to pre- 
 tend it is the Green Goblin, and then we can give 
 him a piece of our minds." So she called out through 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 159 
 
 the leaf, " You wicked, wicked Goblin, what do you 
 mean by saying you are a fairy? Fairies have blue 
 eyes, and yours are green. Fairies have pink cheeks, 
 and yours are green. Fairies have a white skin, and 
 yours is green." 
 
 Then the Green GobUn sped away to the Sky, and 
 he said : " O Sky, give me some of your blue to put 
 in my eyes." 
 
 "That will I," said the Sky; "only you must 
 promise never to make faces at me again." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin. 
 
 Then he sped away to the Apple Tree in Bloom, 
 and he said to her : " O Apple Tree in Bloom, give 
 me some of your white for my skin and some of your 
 pink for my cheeks." 
 
 " That will I," said the Apple Tree in Bloom ; " only 
 you must promise never to shake little birds out of 
 their nests in my branches." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin ; and he went 
 back softly to the tree and said : " Little Breezes, are 
 you at home? I am a beautiful fairy, and I have come 
 to call." 
 
 " Oh," cried the Little Breeze that liked to praise 
 everybody, " what a beautiful Green Goblin there is 
 outside ! How straight and green his hair is, and what 
 
160 THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 a lovely figure he has for a goblin ! It is like a tub 
 on two sticks ! " 
 
 Then the Goblin sped away to the cornfield, and 
 said to the Corn: ^^O Corn, will you give me some 
 of your silk for my hair ? " 
 
 "That will I," said the Corn; "only you must 
 promise not to put black mildew on my stalks." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin. 
 
 Then he sped away to the fern-bed. 
 
 " O Ferns," said he, " will you give me some of your 
 waving grace and some of your green garments?" 
 
 " That will we," said the Ferns; " only you must 
 promise not to trample us any more." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin; and he went 
 back softly to the tree, and said: "Little Breezes, 
 are you at home ? I am a beautiful fairy, and I have 
 come to call." 
 
 " A beautiful fairy indeed! " said the Little Breeze 
 that had sharp ears. " Your heart is a goblin heart. 
 I can hear it beat." 
 
 Now, a goblin heart is quite different from any 
 other, and it beats in a peculiar manner. Then the 
 Green Goblin sped away to the farmyard, where there 
 was a good dog lying asleep in the sun, and he cried 
 to him: " O Dog, give me some of your heart-beats ! " 
 
THE GRADUAL FAIRY 161 
 
 " That will I," said the Dog from his slumber; 
 " only you must promise to keep them warm." 
 
 " I promise," said the Green Goblin, and he went 
 back to the tree. 
 
 But as he stood there he looked down at himself, 
 and he saw that instead of his own stiff legs he had a 
 waving robe of lovely green, and from the hem of 
 it peeped two little white feet of an exquisite shape. 
 And he looked at his hands, and they were white, 
 and a long golden tress of hair came down over his 
 shoulder. And in his wonder he whispered to himself: 
 
 " Surely I am a fairy. Yet I was not born a fairy. 
 I was not a fairy all at once. I must be a Gradual 
 Fairy." 
 
 Then he thought of the price he had paid for all 
 the things that had made him a Gradual Fairy, and 
 his promises not to do wicked tricks any more. But 
 now it seemed a small price to pay, for he could not 
 think of any wicked tricks he wished to do. And his 
 heart beat so swiftly and gave him such a delightful 
 feeling that he put his hand over it to keep it warm. 
 Yet it was still very hot in the forest, and he opened 
 his lips again to tell the Little Breezes he had come 
 to call; but what he said was this: 
 
 " Little Breezes, it is very hot to-day, and if you 
 
162 THE GRADUAL FAIRY 
 
 come out some one may breathe you up. Stay quite 
 still, as your mother bade you, and at six o'clock she 
 will be home." 
 
 "Oh," cried the Little Breeze that liked to love 
 everybody, " how sweet and kind you sound ! Nobody 
 but a fairy could be so sweet and kind. We love you 
 very much." 
 
 " And won't you stay to supper ? " called the Little 
 Breeze that liked to give people things to eat. 
 
 "I will stay here," said the Gradual Fairy, "till 
 your mother comes, and see that nothing harms you. 
 Have your afternoon nap, Little Breezes, and do not 
 be afraid." 
 
 Then the Little Breezes dropped off to sleep, and 
 they knew no more until, at six o'clock, their mother 
 blew open the leaf and came in. And all the Little 
 Breezes woke, one by one, as she took their porringers 
 from the wall. 
 
 " I shall have to hurry and get supper," said she, 
 " for there is the most beautiful fairy outside, and I 
 have asked her to stay. Dear me! what a happy 
 Breeze I am, to have plenty of work and a warm 
 season, and children that are good all day, and a fairy 
 to come to tea! " 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 CHARACTERS 
 
 The Mother Breeze 
 
 The Six Little Breezes 
 
 Captain Rabbit 
 
 Captain Squirrel 
 
 Captain Bear 
 
 The Green Goblin 
 
 Fairies J zephyrs, flowers and hutterflies 
 
 TJie Green Goblin is dressed in a suit of pea-gr^een. 
 His little hands end in claios. His little feet turn 
 up at the toes, A little tight green hood with 
 pointed ears comes round and down on his cheehs 
 and forehead. He is not ugly, hid only queer and 
 charming. After his transformation into a fairy 
 he has a ^pointed red cap and white tunic, tights 
 and shoes. 
 
 The Wish Woman is dressed in a woodsy licheny 
 hrown, with mantle and hood, and carries a staff, 
 
 SCENE: A green-colcyred place in a wood, with 
 
164 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 shadowy trees in tlie hacJcground, In the centre 
 of the stage, hack, is an immense tree, the hrown 
 trunk enormous and the loio flat sjjreading 
 branches reaching from left to right wing. 
 
 Mother. It 's going to be very hot to-day. 
 Little Breezes {sing). It 's going to be the hottest 
 day 
 
 We breezes ever knew; 
 
 And when our noonday nap we take 
 
 The world will scorch till we awake, 
 
 And all the foolish human things 
 
 Will say they 're scorching, too. 
 
 They '11 say, " The hottest, hottest day! 
 
 We think, we fear. 
 
 It is the hottest day for many a year.'' 
 
 And then, in their stupidity, 
 
 They will repeat, 
 
 " It 's not the heat, 
 
 It 's the humidity." 
 First Breeze. Is General Humidity coming to 
 
 luncheon to-day ? 
 Mother. No, not to-day. He has gone to see your 
 
 uncle Tornado, in the South Pacific. They're 
 
 starting a whirlpool trust down there. 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 165 
 
 Second Breeze. Are you going to buy any stock, 
 
 mamma ? 
 Mother. Yes, I shall take a little flutter. N"ow 
 
 listen. I 've got to fly away to Sunset Lake. 
 First Breeze. Please let us go with you. 
 Second Breeze. Please, please let us go with you. 
 Fourth Breeze. Please, please, please let us go 
 
 with you. 
 Fifth Breeze. Please, please, please, please let us 
 
 go with you. 
 All the Breezes. Please, please, please, please, 
 
 please, please let us go with you. 
 Mother (sings). No, you cannot go. 
 
 No, no, I tell you so. 
 You cannot go. 
 (SpeaJcing.) If I were going for an hour you might 
 
 go. If I were going for two hours you might go. 
 
 But I am going for a very little blow, and straight 
 
 back again, and you would be tired. 
 First Breeze. Shall you shut us up in the tree while 
 
 you are gone ? 
 Mother. Yes. You can play all the games you like 
 
 and tell all the stories you like. And when you 
 
 whisper, everybody will say, "Hear the wind in 
 
 the trees ! " 
 
166 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 Second Beeeze. Oh, but it 's dark in there, and we 
 
 can't see to play ! 
 Mother. If you find it too dark inside, you can run 
 
 out among the leaves. You may talk to the birds 
 
 and talk to the butterflies. But if the Green 
 
 Goblin comes, you must not let him in. 
 FmsT Breeze. May n't we fly out and play with him? 
 Mother. No, no. He would breathe you all up in 
 
 two seconds. 
 Fourth Breeze. May we speak to him ? 
 Mother. Yes, you may speak to him, but you must 
 
 not let him in. 
 Fifth Breeze. May we make fun of him ? 
 Mother. Yes, you may make fun of him, but you 
 
 must not let him in. 
 Sixth Breeze. May we blow leaves on him ? 
 Mother. Yes, you may blow leaves on him, but you 
 
 must not let him in. 
 First Breeze. Of course we should n't let him in. 
 
 We should look down to see who it was, and 
 
 then he might knock till he knocked all his 
 
 claws off. 
 Mother. Ah, but he '11 hide down here by the door 
 
 and make you think he 's a fairy. 
 Second Breeze. How could he do that ? 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 167 
 
 Mother. He 'd ring a fairy bluebell, or he 'd knock 
 
 with a fairy stone or fairy wood. But you must 
 
 not let him in. 
 Sixth Breeze. He may not come to-day. 
 Mother. He is sure to come, because it's market 
 
 day. 
 Fourth Breeze. May we go to market. 
 Mother. No, you may not. You must stay in the 
 
 tree. I was foolish to hire a tree here in the 
 
 market-place with everything to tempt you. But 
 
 it 's a roomy tree with modern conveniences, and 
 
 I find it easy to do my work. 
 Fourth Breeze. What makes you think the Green 
 
 Goblin will come to market ? 
 Mother. Because the rabbits and the bears and the 
 
 butterflies are all coming to buy wishes from the 
 
 Wish AVoman, and the Green Goblin will come 
 
 to tease them. 
 Sixth Breeze. I don't believe the Green Goblin is 
 
 so very bad. 
 Mother. That 's because you are little Breezes, and 
 
 you don't know. If you were grown up to be 
 
 Winds, you would n't be so silly. 
 (Sings.) He 's a naughty Green Goblin. 
 He vexes the wood 
 
168 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 "Where all the dear beasties 
 Are glad to be good. 
 He frightens the rabbits 
 Away from the spring. 
 He screams at the robins 
 "Whenever they sing. 
 (SjpeaJcs.) Now run in. I '11 shut you up in the tree. 
 First Breeze. Oh, one more dance, one little, little 
 dance before you shut us up. Fan in the Zephyrs 
 and we '11 dance with them. 
 {They heckon with their fans. Enter the Zephyrs, 
 Tliey all dance and then the mother sings the 
 farewell song,) 
 
 My children dear, good-by. 
 Old Nature toils and so must I. 
 The sun is stoking for the fray. 
 Before I woke I heard him say, 
 ^' I '11 scorch them, women, children, men, 
 And flowers and grass, and then, 
 "Why, then I '11 scorch them once again." 
 My children dear, good-by. 
 Breezes {sing). Do not work too hard. 
 Remember, 
 
 There 's the eight-hour law 
 Till September. 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 169 
 
 Then we can rage and whiff and shout, 
 And turn umbrellas inside out. 
 But not until September. 
 Dear mother, pray remember. 
 Mother. I 'm not a union Breeze, although some- 
 times I strike. 
 My clients I must please, and I treat them all 
 
 ahke. 
 I cool a forehead, steal a hat and blow the bunt- 
 ing free. 
 And set the shadows dancing on the silvery 
 poplar tree. 
 Chorus of Breezes and Zephyrs. She blows and 
 blows and no one knows 
 Where next the blow will strike. 
 For she 's an honest workman 
 And she treats them all alike. 
 Mother. I ramp and roar on sandy shore and on the 
 stormy seas. 
 I'm the sailor's to command when he whistles 
 
 for a breeze. 
 I crack the sheet and snap the mast and tear the 
 
 rigging free. 
 And Jacky Tar cries out, ^^ Aha ! oh, you 're the 
 Breeze for me ! " 
 
170 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 Chorus of Beeezes anb Zephyes. He cries with 
 joy, " Hooray ! Ahoy ! " 
 He makes an awful fuss. 
 But we cry, too, your children do, 
 " Oh, you 're the Breeze for us ! " 
 
 (Mother at the door in the tree trunJc,) 
 Mother (sings). About this door I weave a magic 
 spell. 
 "Who knocks or calls or rings a fairy bell, 
 Shall wait without until I come 
 Back from my labor to my happy home. 
 I weave the spell — 
 Breezes (sing). Oh, do not weave the spell! 
 We know so well 
 The havoc wrought, 
 The anguish brought, 
 By modern spelling 
 Inside a dwelling. 
 Mother. I weave the spell — 
 Breezes (sorrowfully). She weaves the spell! 
 
 Exeunt Mother and Zephyrs, Little Breezes open 
 door in tree, go inside and close door after them. 
 Enter Oreen Gfohlin, Dances Gohlin Dance and 
 thenpicJcs a hluehell from the flower hank near and 
 rings it, still dancing, at the door of the tree. The 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 171 
 
 Little Breezes appear above among the leaves. 
 They call down to him, 
 FmsT Bkeeze. You needn't ring the fairy bell, 
 Green Goblin. AVe know you. 
 The Green Gioblin dances Gohlin Dance^ p)icTcs up 
 a stone and hiocTcs at the door in the tree. 
 Second Breeze. You needn't knock with fairy 
 stones, Green Goblin. We know you. 
 The Green Goblin dances Goblin DancCj brealcs a 
 tioigfrom the tree and knocks on the door of the tree. 
 Third Breeze. You need n't knock with fairy wood, 
 
 Green Goblin. We know you. 
 Sixth Breeze. Aha! You're pretending to be a 
 fairy. But you 're not a fairy. You are a Green 
 Goblin and you 've come to breathe us up. 
 Breezes {sing), Down there, down there, underneath 
 the tree. 
 You are dancing round there — you think we 
 
 cannot see. 
 But we 're the Little Breezes all safe and sound 
 
 inside ; 
 We know you can't get at us and so we need n't 
 hide. 
 The Green Goblin^ with a branchy marks out a ring 
 in front of the tree and dances in that. 
 
172 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 Fourth Breeze. Aha ! you 're pretending to be a 
 fairy. But you are not a fairy. You are the 
 Green Goblin and you've come to breathe us 
 up. 
 
 Fifth Breeze. "We see your cap — your cap is green, 
 
 The greenest cap we 've ever seen. 
 Enter the Wish Woman, The Green Gohlin^ at sight 
 of her^ dances away and hides hehind a hush. 
 
 Wish Woman (sings), 
 
 I 'm the Wish Woman, 
 Something half fay, something half human. 
 Come to me, Creatures, come out of the wood, 
 Wish for the bad or wish for the good : 
 For this one day, be you beastie or fay. 
 Is yours for your good or your mischievous way. 
 Enter Cajdain Rahhit, 
 
 Captain Eabbit. Wish Woman, I 've come to wish I 
 could have a white coat for winter. 
 
 Wish Woman. Shall have it, shall have it. Tour wish 
 has been spoken. 
 
 Enter Captain Squirrel, 
 
 Captain Squirrel. Wish Woman, I 've come to wish 
 everything could be nuts to me. 
 
 Wish Woman. Shall have it, shall have it. Your wish 
 has been spoken. 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 173 
 
 Enter Captain Bea7\ 
 Captain Bear. Wish Woman, I wish I had a honey- 
 comb to comb my hair. 
 Wish Womak. Shall have it, shall have it. Your wish 
 
 has been spoken. 
 First Breeze. Wish Woman, I want to see a fairy 
 
 dance. 
 Wish Wo:man. Shall have it, shall have it. Your wish 
 has been spoken. {Waves and heckons, Enter 
 troop of fairies. Fairy Dance, Captain Rdbhit, 
 Captain Squirrel j Captain Bear also dance) 
 Sixth Breeze. I wish I could see a butterfly 
 
 dance. 
 Wish Woman. Shall have it, shall have it. Your wish 
 has been spoken. (Waves and heclcmis. Enter 
 hutterfiies and dance with fairies. The Green 
 Qoblin holds a branch to hide himself and 
 dances round them. They irealc up and show 
 terror,) 
 Butterflies {sing), 
 
 Eun, run, fairies, run ! 
 
 Fur and feathers, fly and fleet ! 
 
 Let your feet 
 
 Never stop, though you drop. 
 
174 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 For he comes, the Goblin comes. 
 Fairies. He '11 pinch us and scratch us 
 And make awful faces. 
 He '11 chase us and catch us 
 To show his grimaces. 
 All. The Goblin ! the Goblin ! 
 
 The Goblin dressed in green. 
 Captain Rdbhitj Captain Squirrel^ and Captain 
 
 Bear sing trio. 
 Captain Eabbit. What's a goblin? 
 Captain Bear. What 's a goblin? 
 Captain Squirrel. What's a goblin? 
 Trio. It 's something hobblin' through the wood 
 And wobblin' round the tree. 
 It 's neither pretty, sweet, nor good 
 For fairy eyes to see. 
 His claws are sharp, his toes turn up, 
 The funniest ever seen. 
 And oh, my garters ! oh, my stars ! 
 He 's always dressed in green. 
 Exeunt Captain Ralibit^ Captain Squirrel, Captain 
 Bear, hutter flies and fairies. The Green Goblin 
 dances, a triumpliant dance, in derision of them, 
 then a sad one, and goes heseechingly to the Wish 
 Woman, 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 175 
 
 Wish Woman to Green Goblin (sings), 
 
 I am the Wish Woman, naughty dear. 
 Tell me your wish and never fear. 
 What do you want from out my store? 
 Help yourself and come for more. 
 The Green Oohlin points to Ms cap with distaste. 
 A cap? That's easy done. 
 
 Eun! 
 Run to the columbine there by the spring. 
 Pull off a blossom and now while I sing 
 Stretch it and stretch it and stretch it with 
 might ! 
 Pull it on tight. 
 ^xit Green Gohlin, dancing. The Wish Woman 
 imitates Mm in admiration. Enter the Green 
 Gohlin p)utting on, with great deligM, a red co- 
 lumbine cap. Goes triumphantly and Tcnochs at 
 the door in the tree, 
 FiEST AND Sixth Breezes {sing). 
 
 We know you still, Green Goblin. 
 
 Your cap is very well. 
 
 But only see your dreadful claws ! 
 
 Why, any one could tell 
 
 You 're nothing but a goblin, 
 
 A goblin dressed in green. 
 
176 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 (Chorus from without.) 
 
 His claws are sharp, his toes turn up, 
 The funniest ever seen. 
 And oh, my garters ! oh, my stars ! 
 He 's always dressed in green. 
 The Oreen Gohlin dances a sorrowful dance, and 
 goes to the Wish Woman, holding out his 
 hands. 
 Wish Woman {sings). 
 
 You want to change your naughty claws 
 For helpful hands ? 
 My magic carpet 's there outside, 
 Get on, and teach yourself to ride. 
 And in a second you '11 be where 
 The North Pole rises up in air. 
 There wash your hands in baths of snow, 
 And ere it melts, fly down below 
 Straight to the Equinoctial Line 
 And hang them out for seconds nine. 
 Exit Oreen Gohlin, 
 Fifth Breeze. Wish Woman, I wish I could see 
 Captain Rabbit and Captain Squirrel dance with 
 Captain Bear. 
 Wish Woman. Shall have it, shall have it. Your 
 wish has been spoken. {Waves and hecJcons, 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 177 
 
 Enter Captain Rahhit, Captain Squirrel, and 
 Captain Bear, and dance uncoidJily, Enter Qreen 
 GrobVin, with heautifid white hands. Exeunt Cap- 
 tain JRahhit, Captain Squirrel, and Captain 
 Bear, The Green Goblin dances delightedly and 
 then Icnocks at the door in the tree,) 
 Wish "Womajs" [sings), 
 
 O darling hands so soft and white ! 
 No wrong you '11 do, but only right. 
 Who has two fairy hands 
 He plainly understands 
 Within this fairy wood 
 No evil can he do, but only good. 
 The Green Gohlin keeps dancing, Jcnoching at in- 
 tervals. 
 Fourth Breeze. 
 
 But one new cap and two new hands 
 
 Won't make an elf. 
 You know that 's so yourself. 
 Breezes {sing). 
 
 You think you are a fairy, 
 But we know you're not a fay; 
 And what you are we plainly see, 
 But we laugh too much to say. 
 
178 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 Your cap is very comely and your steps are very 
 
 fleet; 
 But look at your extremities! They're ugly 
 goblin feet. 
 The Green Ooblin dances and heseeches the Wish 
 
 Woman, 
 Wish "Woman. What more shall I give you ? what 
 more ? what more ? 
 A pair of pretty fairy feet, 
 Little, tender, flying, fleet ? 
 (Sings.) Don't be sorry. 
 Do not worry. 
 If you want it, I will give it. 
 You can use it. Never lose it, 
 The receipt 
 For fairy feet. 
 Take a grain of star-shine. 
 So the feet will twinkle. 
 Take a diamond's smoothness, 
 So the skin won't wrinkle. 
 Take some almond paste and pearl, 
 Take a pinch of whirlwind's whirl, 
 Or take — I have them here to-day — 
 The feet of Mademoiselle Genee. 
 TaJces two little white feet out of her pouch. The 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 179 
 
 Q-reen Goblin snatches them, sits down hack to 
 the audience, throws his green feet aside and ap- 
 parently slips on the white feet Dances ecsta- 
 tically. 
 Wish Woman (sings). Fairy feet are feet that walk 
 to duty. 
 Fairy feet are feet that run to beauty, 
 To fun, to pleasure, to delight, 
 To dances in the ring by night. 
 The Green Gohlin picks np a Green Gohlin foot 
 and knocks at tlie door in the tree. 
 First Breeze {sings). Your feet are fairy feet. 
 You could run a fairy race, 
 But your cheeks are green as leeks. 
 You Ve an ugly Goblin face. 
 The Green Gohlin dances up to Wish Woman and 
 beseechingly offers petition to her. 
 Wish Woman. To change the color of your skin 
 We must begin 
 
 With sorrow's pallor for your sin 
 Against the beasties in the wood. 
 With red of love and gentlehood: 
 For fairies here are always good. 
 The rose will give you red 
 For your cheek. 
 
180 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 But you must be as sweet as she, 
 
 Nor even seek 
 
 To make a face 
 
 Or black grimace. 
 
 The apple-tree will give you white 
 
 For your brow. 
 
 But you must be as pure as she. 
 
 Go now. 
 
 Exit the Green Ooblin, 
 Sixth Breeze. O "Wish Woman, I wish the Green 
 
 Goblin had a lovely fairy dress. 
 "Wish Womais^. Shall have it, shall have it. Your 
 wish has been spoken. 
 {Beckons.) Flowers come to market ! 
 Flowers come to market ! 
 Come and sell your red and white, 
 Come and sell your gold and blue. 
 
 Enter fiomers of all colors and dance. 
 Flowers {sing). Come buy ! come buy ! 
 
 Buy of the apple bloom, pink and white, 
 Buy of the cherry, whiter than white. 
 Buy of the larkspur, purple and blue. 
 Buy of the heartease blooming for you ! 
 Come buy ! come buy ! 
 
THE GREEN GOBLIN 181 
 
 Enter the Green Goblin, 
 The Floicers crowd cibout the Green Goblin and 
 enveloj) him in gauzy scarfs of many colors. 
 The Green Goblin dances and unrolls them and 
 steps forth a lovely fairy in white. 
 Breezes. O now 't is a fairy we plainly can see, 
 A fairy, a fairy, to afternoon tea ! 
 O where is our mother to open the tree. 
 So this sweet lovely fairy can drop in to tea? 
 Enter Mother, Opens the door, [Siyigs,) 
 At last I 'm home. 
 Come, children, come. 
 {Sees the fairy ivaiting modestly. Makes a low obeis' 
 
 ance to her and begins fanning her,) 
 Mother {sings), A fairy at my door ! 
 One I never saw before ! 
 The sweetest, too, the dearest, 
 The darlingest, the fairest. 
 Enter the Zephyrs and begin fanning the new 
 fairy. The Little Breezes enter from the tree to 
 fan her. 
 All {sing). Gracious, lovely, darling one. 
 Here beneath the smiling sun 
 Deign to tread this magic ground 
 
182 THE GREEN GOBLIN 
 
 In a fairy ring around. 
 Be our princess, be our queen, 
 Be the loveliest ever seen, 
 Here beneath this laughing sun. 
 Gracious, lovely, darling one. 
 All dance. 
 
 CUETAIN. 
 
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