Friendly Fairies Read online

  And there, too, was his sister as she had been when a child. He lookedat himself, and lo! he was no longer wrinkled and old. He was youngagain!

  In his gladness he danced with joy, and catching his sister to hisbreast he kissed her again and again.

  And, looking about him with shining eyes, he again drew his bow acrossthe strings and played a tune so lively and full of sweet happiness thechildhood friends caught hands and danced in a circle, and the littlesprites, elves, gnomes and fairies caught hands and danced around thechildren, and as they passed before the brother he caught a mischievousglance from the eyes of one of the little fairies, and he knew in amoment she was the one who had played the old woman, and who had givenhim the iron ring....

  The people who lived in the room below the attic room missed the littleold man's shuffling step, and, not hearing it for two days, they toldthe landlady, a kindly soul who had let the brother and sister have theattic room free of charge, and all went up to investigate....

  They rapped upon the attic door. All was quiet within. Timidly theyopened the door and looked in. There upon the floor lay an old rustyiron ring. It was the Fairy Ring.

  MR. AND MRS. THUMBKINS

  Thumbkins ran beneath the bushes and down the tiny path until he cameto where Tommy Grasshopper sat upon a blade of grass swinging in thebreeze.

  "Have you seen Mrs. Thumbkins, Tommy Grasshopper?" Thumbkins called.

  "I have been asleep," replied Tommy Grasshopper, "And I haven't seenher!"

  "Oh dear! Oh dear!" cried Thumbkins. "She has not been home all day!"

  "Perhaps she went over to see Granpa Tobackyworm!" suggested TommyGrasshopper, as he flicked his wings and made the blade of grass swingup and down.

  So Thumbkins thanked Tommy Grasshopper and ran over to GranpaTobacyworm's house.

  Granpa Tobackyworm was sitting upon a blade of grass, swinging in thebreeze and smoking his old clay pipe.

  "Oh, Granpa Tobackyworm! Have you seen Mrs. Thumbkins? She has not beenat home all day and I can not find her!" cried Thumbkins.

  "Yes, I saw her early this morning going down the path with her acornbasket," said Granpa Tobackyworm as he blew a few rings of smoke inthe air. "Perhaps she has gone to the Katydid grocery store to buysomething," Granpa Tobackyworm added as he bounced up and down on hisblade of grass.

  So Thumbkins thanked Granpa Tobackyworm and went on down the tiny path.

  "Hello, Thumbkins!" cried a cheery voice as Thumbkins ran under a bunchof flowers. "Where are you going in such a hurry?"

  Thumbkins saw Billy Bumblebee sitting upon one of the flowers, swingingin the breeze.

  "Mrs. Thumbkins has not been home all day!" said Thumbkins. "And I cannot find her anywhere!"

  "HUMMMM!" replied Billy Bumblebee. "Let me think! HUMMMM!" This was hisway of thinking very hard.

  "Perhaps she has gone over to see Granpa Tobackyworm, Mr Thumbkins!"

  "No!" replied Thumbkins, "I went there, and also over to the Katydidstore, but she was not there!"

  "Suppose you climb upon my back, Thumbkins, and let me help you findher!" said Billy Bumblebee, as he buzzed his wings, making the flowersway up and down. So Thumbkins climbed up the flower stalk and took aseat upon Billy Bumblebee's back.

  "Let us fly way up in the air so that we may look down over all thecountry!" said Billy Bumblebee, as he made his wings whirr and climbedhigh in the air.

  Billy Bumblebee and Thumbkins looked over the country carefully, butthey could not see Mrs. Thumbkins anywhere.

  Finally Billy's sharp eyes discovered something shiny down by the sideof the pond, so they flew down towards it. It was a new tin can house.The door was closed.

  Thumbkins alighted from Billy Bumblebee's back and knocked at the door.

  TINKY-TINKY-TINK!

  "GRUMP! GRUMP!" said a deep voice from inside the tin can house. BillyBumblebee peeped through a chink in a window, and saw a hoppy-toad withhis mouth full of pancakes.

  So Thumbkins picked up a pebble and knocked louder. TONKY-TONKY-TONK!

  Old Man Hoppy-toad came to the door with a pancake in each hand andanother large one in his mouth. "GRUMP! GRUMP!" he said.

  "Where is Mrs. Thumbkins?" Billy Bumblebee demanded, as he buzzed aroundOld Man Hoppy-toad's head.

  "I don't know!" said Old Man Hoppy-toad when he had swallowed thepancake.

  "Yes, you do!" Thumbkins cried as he caught Old Man Hoppy-toad's hand."Who made those pancakes for you?"

  Billy Bumblebee buzzed closer to Old Man Hoppy-toad's head and Old ManHoppy-toad blinked his big round eyes and finally said, "She is lockedup in the kitchen!"

  So Thumbkins ran to the kitchen and came out with Mrs.Thumbkins. Old Man Hoppy-toad had locked her in the kitchen so she wouldhave to bake lots and lots of pancakes for him.

  Thumbkins was so glad to see Mrs. Thumbkins he came very near crying.And Billy Bumblebee said to Old Man Hoppy-toad, "Now you must leave ourneighborhood, for we do not permit anyone to bother anyone else in theTown of Tinythings."

  So Old Man Hoppy-toad had to pack up all his things in a redhandkerchief and hustle out of town.

  And Billy Bumblebee buzzed right around his head as Old Man Hoppy-toadwent down the path "Lickity split-Hoppity hop!" and never once lookedbehind him.

  Thumbkins and Mrs. Thumbkins went back home, and when Billy Bumblebeereturned and told them he had made Old Man Hoppy-toad go 'way down tothe river they knew they would never be troubled with him again.

  Mrs. Thumbkins said she had fried pancakes all day but she was not tootired to fry more. So she made a lot of pancakes, while Billy Bumblebeeflew home and returned with a bucket of honey, and they had so manypancakes Mrs. Thumbkins asked Billy Bumblebee if he would fly around andinvite all the neighbors in to help eat them.

  Tommy Grasshopper, Granpa Tobackyworm, and all the other friends of theThumbkins came and ate the lovely pancakes, covered with the delicioushoney.

  And, after eating as much as they could, everybody caught hold of handsand danced until late in the night, for the Katydid orchestra was thereto furnish the music.

  THE OLD, ROUGH STONE AND THE GNARLED TREE

  A great rough stone lay beneath a gnarled old tree. Years ago a tinysquirrel had climbed upon the stone to nibble some nuts, but before hehad finished he was startled away.

  "There!" thought the stone to himself as he saw a nut roll to theground, "now that nut will take root and grow into a tree and I willhave to lie here for ages beneath its branches. I wish the sillysquirrel had gone some other place to eat the nuts!"

  When the little nut took root and sent its tiny shoots up in the air,the old, rough Stone said, "There! I knew it!" and he disliked the treefrom that time on.

  The old, rough Stone watched the tiny green shoot grow and grow until itgrew into an enormous tree.

  "Just see how he pushes me up in the air with his roots!" the old, roughStone said to himself.

  When the gnarled tree was covered with leaves in the summer time, theold, rough Stone said, "Just see how he hides the blue sky from myview!"

  And in the winter time when the limbs of the tree were bare, the old,rough Stone said, "Just see how he lets the snow and the cold rain fallright on me!"

  One night during a heavy storm the old, rough Stone heard a crash, andin the morning he saw the gnarled tree lying upon the ground. "Now Ishall be all by myself again!" he said. Then he counted the rings in thetrunk of the gnarled tree until he came to three hundred, which was asfar as he could count. "More than three hundred years have passed sincethat silly little squirrel dropped the nut from which this tree grew!"said the old, rough Stone to himself.

  Then men came with axes and cut up the tree and carried all of it away.

  When the hot summer days came the sun beat down upon the old, roughStone and he missed the shade of the gnarled tree. "My! It's hot!" saidthe old, rough Stone, "I wish the gnarled tree with its pretty rustlingleaves were here again to shade me and keep me cool!"

  When winter came the
old, rough Stone missed the leaves which fellaround him and kept him warm.

  "Oh dear! How cold it is!" he cried, "I wish the gnarled tree would comeback and scatter his leaves about me to protect me from the cold!"

  So years and years and years passed, and the great old, rough Stone layall alone.

  "I wish another squirrel would come to eat nuts upon me!" he thought."Squirrels are such knowing little creatures, I am sure another mightdrop a nut which would grow into a lovely tree to keep me company."

  But, many more years passed, and never again did a tiny squirrel situpon the old, rough Stone and eat nuts. And never again did another treegrow above the old, rough Stone to keep him company.

  "Ah me!" sighed the old, rough Stone, "We never know how well off we areuntil we lose something we really need!"

  SALLY MIGRUNDY

  Sally Migrundy lived all alone in a tiny little cottage no larger than apiano box. This was plenty large enough for Sally Migrundy though, forshe was a tiny little lady herself. Sally Migrundy's tiny little cottagestood at the edge of a stream, a beautiful crystal clear stream oftinkling water which sang in a continual murmur all day and all night toSally Migrundy.

  The stream tinkled merrily through a great forest which lay for milesand miles, a green mantle over the hills and valleys, and SallyMigrundy's tiny little cottage stood in the exact center of the greatwhispering forest.

  All the wood creatures knew and loved Sally Migrundy and she knew andloved all of the wood creatures.

  Each morning she would scatter food upon the surface of the singingstream and the lovely fish, their sides reflecting rainbow colors, wouldleap from the tinkling waters and splash about to show their pleasure.And she would place food about her little garden for the birds and theyin turn repaid her by their wonderful melodies.

  Even the mama deer brought their little, wabbly-legged baby deer tointroduce to Sally Migrundy; and she rubbed their sleek sides and talkedto them so they couldn't but love her.

  Now Sally Migrundy had always lived in her tiny cottage on the bank ofthe tinkling stream which ran through the whispering forest. She hadlived there when the largest trees in the forest were tiny littlesprouts. She had lived there long before that, and even still longerthan that, and that, and that. Ever so much longer!

  One day a man who lived on a hill many, many miles away from thewhispering forest said to his wife: "Mother, wouldn't you like to knowwhere the water that flows from our spring goes to?" And his wifereplied: "It must travel until it reaches the ocean!"

  "Yes, I know that, mother" he replied, "but I mean, wouldn't it beinteresting to know all of the country through which the water flows?"

  So the more they talked of it, the more interested they became until theman finally wrote upon a slip of paper and put the paper into a tinybottle. Then he put the bottle upon the surface of the spring water andwatched it float away.

  The little bottle floated along, tumbling over the tiny falls andtinkling ripples and bobbing up and down in the deep, blue, quiet,places until finally it floated to Sally Migrundy's and came to rest inthe mass of pretty flowers where Sally Migrundy came each morning to dipher tiny bucket of water.

  And so Sally Migrundy found the tiny bottle and took it into her tinyhouse to read the tiny note she saw inside.

  It was such a nice, happy-hearted note Sally Migrundy said: "I willanswer it!" So she wrote a happy-hearted note and asked whoever read itto come and visit her. Then she put her note in the tiny bottle and sentit dancing and bobbing down through the whispering forest, riding uponthe surface of the singing stream. And Sally Migrundy's note floatedalong in the bottle until a little boy and a little girl saw it andpicked it up.

  And when they read Sally Migrundy's happy-hearted note asking them tovisit her they started following up the stream until after a long, longtime they came to the tiny little cottage.

  Sally Migrundy was very much surprised to see the two children, for shehad almost forgotten she had written the invitation.

  "Howdeedoo!" said Sally Migrundy, "Where in the world did you childrencome from?"

  "We found a note in a bottle and traveled up the stream until we came toyour little cottage," they answered.

  "But won't your mamas and daddies be worried because you have been awayfrom home so long?" Sally Migrundy asked.

  "We are orphans," the children said.

  Then Sally Migrundy kissed them and asked them into her tiny cottage.

  The door was so small the children had to get down upon their hands andknees to crawl through. But when they got inside they were surprised tofind that the rooms were very large. In fact, Sally Migrundy's livingroom was larger inside than the whole little cottage was on the outside,for, as you have probably guessed, Sally Migrundy's cottage was a magichouse.

  And in one corner of the living room there was a queer stand with asilver stem sticking up through the center, and the stem curved over anddown towards five or six little crystal glasses.

  It was a magic soda fountain, as the children soon found out, and theycould have all the soda water they wished at any time.

  In another room were two little snow white beds. These belonged to them,Sally Migrundy told the children. As you have probably guessed, themagic cottage took care to make everything comfortable for those whocame inside.

  And when Sally Migrundy had shown the children their pretty bed roomshe took them to the dining room and there they found a table which hadeverything nice to eat upon it. And so the children ate and ate and ate,for the magic table knew just what the person wished for who sat atit. So you may be sure there were plenty of cookies and ice cream andcandies and golden doughnuts and everything.

  So the two little orphan children lived all the time with SallyMigrundy. And each morning when they tumbled, laughing and shouting, outof their little snow white beds, they found underneath a new present. Soeach morning they had a new toy to play with, for the magic beds knewjust what a child would like most each day.

  Sally Migrundy was very, very glad the children had come to live withher, so she wrote more notes and sent them down the singing stream, andmore and more children came until Sally Migrundy's house was very, verylarge inside, but still the same tiny little cottage on the outside. Thesinging and happy laughter of the children echoed through the whisperingforest all day, and the ground about the cottage was filled with toysand playthings,--merry-go-rounds, sliding boards, sand piles, hundredsof sand toys, and play houses filled with beautiful dolls and dollfurniture.

  There was a roller coaster which knew just when to stop and start sothat none of the children could ever hurt themselves upon it, and alittle play grocery, a little play candy store, and a little play icecream parlor so that the children could go there at any time and getcookies and candy and ice cream whenever they wished. You may be sure itwas a very happy place to live and the children made Sally Migrundy veryhappy. At first the creatures who lived in the whispering forest weresurprised to hear the happy laughter and to see so many children playingabout, but they soon grew accustomed to the children and came right upto the grocery and candy store and ice cream parlor to be fed.

  Each year Sally Migrundy sends happy-hearted invitations floating downthe stream and more orphan children come to live with her. However SallyMigrundy's tiny cottage is just the same tiny cottage on the outside.But when once you crawl through the tiny door, you look upon rows androws of little rooms, each having one or more little snow white beds init.

  And, while Sally Migrundy remains a tiny little lady only two feet high,she has as much happiness inside as if she were as large as a great bigmountain, for as you have probably also guessed, she is a fairy and canhave as much room inside for happiness as the little magic cottage couldhave room inside for all the happy children.

  One day the man who lived upon the hill where the spring bubbles up fromthe ground and makes the beginning of the singing stream said to hiswife: "Mother, I will follow the stream and see where it leads to!" Sohe started down the stream
and walked and walked and walked until thestream took him down through the whispering forest clear down to thesea.

  Then he turned around and walked back up the stream from the ocean--upthrough the whispering forest until he came again to his home at the topof the hill.

  "I followed the stream down through a great whispering forest, mother,"he said, "until I came to the sea. Then I turned around and came backthe same way. It was a beautiful trip and when I came to the center ofthe great whispering forest there was a clearing at the side of thetinkling, singing stream, and the lovely fish leaped from the crystalwaters and showed me their wonderful coloring, and the clearing wasfilled with beautiful flowers and the music of birds. And it was sobeautiful I stopped and watched and listened.

  "It seemed as if hundreds of children were playing around me, andalthough I could not hear them yet it seemed to me that I felt they wereshouting and laughing at their play!"

  "How wonderful it must have been!" said his wife.