Part 4 (2/2)
Then Mist-of-the-Morning spread his wings and flew home, trailing the sunbeam after him. And all the fairies in his own cloud welcomed him with shouts and singing, because they saw at once that sunbeam silver was the best of all.
They made their cloud a beautiful thick lining of it, with the silver s.h.i.+ning all round the edge. And the rain never came through any more.
Now that I have told you this story I hope you will not forget that it is waste of time to line a cloud with any kind of silver except the kind that sunbeams are made of.
_THE FAIRIES WHO CHANGED PLACES_
This story is about something that happened long, long, and ever so long ago, before the fairies had really settled down to their work.
There was then a little fairy called Starblossom, whose business it was to take care of the earliest Spring flowers; and there was also a fairy called Drop-of-Crystal, whose work it was to make snowflakes. These two fairies were great friends.
One day Starblossom had not very much to do. She had finished sharpening the little green spikes of her flower-leaves, and had even made ready one or two white buds. But when she saw that Drop-of-Crystal was very busy making heavy drops of snow, she thought to herself that there was no need for her to be in a hurry about the Spring flowers. They would be much more comfortable underground if Drop-of-Crystal were going to fling snowflakes all over them. So she carefully covered up her buds and went off to watch the snow-fairy at work.
Drop-of-Crystal was too busy to speak. He was making an enormous quant.i.ty of snowflakes. Starblossom was silent for some time, but at last she asked--
”What are they all for?”
”For a snow-storm, of course,” said Drop-of-Crystal shortly.
”Are they all to be used in one storm?” asked Starblossom. ”It will be a very big storm, I'm afraid.”
”It will,” said Drop-of-Crystal--”very big. You'd better take care of those flowers of yours, or they'll be hurt.”
”There are not many of them above ground,” Starblossom answered. ”I saw what you were doing. But in any case my flowers are not likely to be hurt by the snow-fairies so much as by the frost-fairies.”
Drop-of-Crystal said nothing to this, but went on working busily.
Presently Starblossom spoke again.
”It seems to me that snowflakes are very easy to make. Your work is really much easier than mine. It is very difficult to make flowers nicely. One has to be so particular about the shape of them.”
”I don't agree with you at all,” said Drop-of-Crystal rather crossly.
”My work is much harder than yours. I have to make thousands and thousands of snowflakes for the very smallest snow-storm. You can take quite a long time arranging the shape of your flowers, but I have to work in a hurry, or the storm would run short of snowflakes. And that would be very serious.”
”Not half so serious as it would be if the Spring were to run short of flowers,” said Starblossom indignantly.
”Look here,” said Drop-of-Crystal, losing his temper, ”if you like my work so much I wish you'd do it! You can set to work and make a few thousand snowflakes while I take a rest.”
”I shall be delighted to do such easy work,” said Starblossom; ”but of course if I make your snowflakes you must make my flowers. That is only fair.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: DROP-OF-CRYSTAL WAS TOO BUSY TO SPEAK]
”Very well,” said Drop-of-Crystal, ”I don't mind. After all, work of that kind is just the same as resting.”
So he flew off to the place where Starblossom's flowers were beginning to show their spiky leaves above ground. He had never made a flower before, and did not know how to set about it, but he was much too proud to ask Starblossom how it ought to be done. So he did the best he could by himself.
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