_THE FAIRY WHO HAD ONLY ONE WING_
I am going to tell you now about a fairy who lost one of his wings. Hishome was in a white rosebud, which one would imagine to be a nice, safe,comfortable home for a fairy to have. And yet it was while he was in thewhite rosebud that the terrible accident happened which left him withonly one wing.
All would have been well if he had stayed in the country. But one day aman came with scissors and snipped the white rosebud off the tree, andpacked it in cotton-wool, and sent it off to London. Of course the fairyhad to go too, and a very uncomfortable journey he had. There were anumber of other flowers packed in the same box, and in each flower therewas a fairy; so they were all able to grumble together. But you can'tgrumble with any real comfort when you are packed very tightly, and haveto talk through a good deal of cotton-wool.
At last the journey was over, and the rosebud was taken out of thecotton-wool and put in water. Then the fairy crept up from the heart ofthe rosebud, and put his head over the edge of the petals and lookedabout him.
There were flowers all round him: flowers in pots, flowers in glasses,flowers lying on the table, flowers in baskets, and great bunches offlowers in the big window. The truth was that the rosebud was in aflower-shop, but he did not know this. He only knew that it was verypleasant to be again in a place that was full of flowers and fairies.
He thought he was going to enjoy himself; but that was because he didnot know how cruelly fairies are sometimes treated in flower-shops. Thepeople who arrange the flowers have a horrible way of trying to kill thefairies; and this is what they do. They take a dreadful, sharp piece ofwire and poke it through the very heart of the flower, and then fastenit tightly round the stem! You will see at once that nothing is morelikely to hurt a fairy than this. Indeed, he would certainly be killed,if it were not almost impossible to kill a fairy.
The little rosebud-fairy was lying comfortably curled up, deep downamong the white petals of the rose, when suddenly he saw coming throughthe walls of his home a sharp glittering point!
"Oh dear!" he cried, trying to scramble out of the way.
But that was no use, the glittering point came nearer and nearer.
"Oh dear--oh dear!" he cried again. "Where is it coming to? Oh--it'scoming this way--the horrible thing. _Oh--oh--oh!_"
It was no wonder that he cried out. The dreadful wire had caught one ofhis beautiful gossamer wings, and dragged it, and torn it, till therewas nothing left of it but some little shreds of fluttering gauze.
"What shall I do?" he wailed. "How can I fly with only one wing, andwhat is the use of a fairy that can't fly? What shall I do?"
He picked up the torn pieces of his wing and wondered if he could mendthem. But he soon saw that it was impossible, so he folded them upcarefully and laid them inside the rose-petals; and ever afterwardsthere was a faint tinge of pink deep down in the heart of the rosebud.
For a long time, long after the rosebud had been tied up with a sprig offern and put in the window, the poor little fairy went on moaning andsighing over the loss of his wing. He was still sighing when a littlegirl came into the shop. If the fairy had not been hiding among thepetals of his rosebud he would have seen at once that she was the kindof little girl that the fairies always love; a little girl with brighteyes and a laughing face--altogether a very nice little girl. Shepointed to the white rosebud and said--
"I want to buy that rosebud, please, for Granny's birthday."
In another minute she was walking along the street with the rosebud inher fat hand.
Then the fairy crept up from the heart of the rose and looked over theedge of the petals. The little girl saw him at once and was not at allsurprised.
"There you are!" she said. "I wondered when you would look out. Ofcourse I knew there was a fairy in the rosebud, or I wouldn't havebought it. It would have been no use, you see."
"What a very nice little girl!" thought the fairy. "She seems to have agreat deal of sense."
The little girl went on: "Poor thing, I see your wing has been torn off.That nearly always happens to the fairies that come from flower-shops.But I dare say Granny won't mind. She sees very few fairies. I am goingto leave you at Granny's house because it is her birthday. Now remember,you're to be very nice to Granny, because she sees so few fairies."
By this time they had reached Granny's house. Granny lived all alone ina very splendid house in a great square. The house had a great many finethings in it: handsome furniture and valuable china and grand silks andbrocades. But there was not a single fairy in it, and a house that hasno fairies in it is a very dull place.
Granny was sitting alone on her birthday. She looked round the greatdrawing-room and thought there were a number of empty chairs and sofasin it. That made her feel very lonely. No one had been to see her on herbirthday; she had had no presents or letters; no one had noticed herbirthday at all. If there had been any fairies in the house Granny wouldnot have felt so lonely, because the fairies are always good company.But poor Granny had quite forgotten all about the fairies; it was solong since she had seen any.
Then a footman brought the white rosebud into the room, with a messagefrom the little girl with the bright eyes and the nice laughing face.
Granny sat for a long time with the white rosebud on her knee. She felthappier than she had been all day. She sat so still that the fairythought he might safely peep out and see what was going on. To his greatsurprise Granny noticed him at once; he had not thought it at all likelythat she would see him, for she was not the kind of person who oftensees fairies. Probably she would not have seen him if she had not beenso sad and lonely.
"Why," she said, "it's a fairy! It is years since I saw a fairy. Ithought I should never see one again."
When the fairy saw that Granny was glad to see him, he crept out of therosebud and sat on her wrinkled hand, and talked to her.
"Poor little thing," said Granny, "you have lost one of your wings.Well, it was not likely that any but a one-winged fairy would find hisway in here."
Then she sighed. So the fairy, to cheer her up, told her all about thelovely garden he had left behind him in the country--the garden where hehad lived before the man with the scissors came to cut the rosebud. Hetold her about the other roses and the fairies that lived in them, andthe tall hollyhocks whose fairies were so prim and old-fashioned, andthe sweet, shy love-in-a-mist whose fairies always wore veils when theywent out, and the sunflower-fairies who had never been taught that itwas rude to stare, and the dear unselfish verbena fairies who made theworld so sweet for other people and never thought of themselves. ThenGranny remembered all sorts of things that she had forgotten foryears--fairies she used to know when she was a little girl, and thestories they used to tell her. She told some of the stories to therosebud fairy, and they talked together for a long time. Granny washappier that evening than she had been for a great many evenings. Shesaid to herself that her birthday had been a very nice one after all.
"Won't you come and live with me?" she said.
The fairy looked round the room.
"Well," he said, "I should like to stay very much, but I really don'tsee any place here for me to live. My rosebud will soon die and bethrown away."
"But if I were to keep the rosebud always, even when it was dead? Wouldyou stay then?"
The fairy thought for a moment.
"I tell you plainly," he said, "that I don't like the idea of living ina dead rosebud. But I know it's done sometimes, and one mustn't be tooparticular when one has only one wing."
"I'll ask the little girl who brought you here to come and see youoften," said Granny, "and you and I will go out to-morrow and buy somepicture-books for her, and some chocolates, and then we shall all threeenjoy ourselves together."
The fairy nodded happily.
"That settles it," he said. "I'll stay."