_PRINCESS ORCHID'S PARTY_
A fairy whose name was Hedgeflower once lived in a wild rose at thecorner of a field. One day he went out to search for adventures, formost fairies have a great wish for adventures.
He wandered on for a long time, sometimes walking and sometimes flying,and sometimes stopping to talk to friends, for the wild-rose-fairieshave a great many friends. He crossed several fields in this way, andthen he came to a high hedge. He was just thinking of going home when heheard a great buzzing of voices on the other side of the hedge, and asthe voices were fairy-voices he was interested at once. Perhaps, hethought, he would find the adventure he was looking for on the otherside of the hedge. So he spread his pink-and-white wings and flew over.
It was not surprising that he had heard a great many fairy-voices, forhe found himself in a beautiful garden, and all beautiful gardens are,as you know, full of fairies. In this garden there were not only thesorts of fairies that one meets every day, such as rose-fairies andlily-fairies and the quiet little ones that live in mignonette, butthere were also all kinds of smartly dressed fairies belonging tostrange and splendid flowers. They all seemed to be getting on very welltogether, for they were all talking loudly about something thatinterested them very much.
As Hedgeflower dropped down into the middle of the group he felt alittle shy. But fairies are as a rule kind and friendly, so a good manyvoices called out Good-morning to him as he sat down under the shade ofa large purple pansy. Then a butterfly whom he had met once or twicebefore came rustling up to him and began to talk.
"I like this place," said the butterfly. "One meets so many differentkinds of fairies. But don't sit there. Come and let me introduce you tosome of my friends." Then as they moved away he lowered his voice andwent on--
"Those little pansy-fairies are good little things, but they are a bittoo thoughtful for me. I find them just a trifle dull, you know. Buthere is a cousin of yours; I must introduce you."
Hedgeflower looked round and saw that a beautiful rose-fairy wasstanding near. She wore flowing robes of two shades of pink, and herappearance was full of dignity.
"Madame La France," said the butterfly, "may I introduce to you a cousinof your own?"
"A very distant cousin, I am afraid, Madame," said Hedgeflower, bowinglow.
Madame La France smiled kindly and asked Hedgeflower if he had oftenbeen in the garden before. He told her that this was his first visit.
"Then," she cried, "you must come to the party--you must certainly cometo Princess Orchid's party. She lives over there in the glass house, andshe has asked all the fairies in the garden to a party this afternoon.We have been talking about it all day. You must come with me; thePrincess will be glad to see any cousin of mine."
Hedgeflower was delighted. He thought it would be great fun to tell thefairies at home all about it: Meadowsweet, and that cheeky littleEyebright, and Buttercup who stared at everything one said, and all thehoneysuckle-fairies, who were such friends with the wild-rose-fairiesbecause their families had lived close together for so long. Hedgeflowerthought that to go to a Princess's party with his beautiful cousin was anicer adventure than anything he had expected when he set out for hiswalk.
Meanwhile all the fairies in the garden were making their way towardsthe glass house.
"You must keep close to me," said Madame La France kindly. "The flowerin which the Princess lives is some way from the door, and you might belost in the crowd."
In another moment Hedgeflower found himself in a scene of the greatestsplendour. The glass house was full of flowers, and every flower had ofcourse its own special fairy, and nearly all of them were magnificentlydressed and were quite different to any fairies that Hedgeflower knew.The greatest crowd was of course round the beautiful flower in which thePrincess Orchid lived, and Hedgeflower and his cousin found it quitedifficult to get near the Princess without crushing their wings. Theywere obliged to walk so slowly that Hedgeflower had plenty of time tolook about him. He saw numbers of his cousins the rose-fairies, and talllily-fairies, and fern-fairies dressed all in green. The pansy-fairieswere there too, with their sad little faces and their splendidpurple-and-gold dresses. Quite close to him there was a fuchsia-fairy,dressed in a stiff white petticoat with a pointed overskirt of scarlet;and standing beside her were several fairies whose crimson tunics wereso fine that Hedgeflower asked who they were.
"They are the young Prince Begonias," said Madame La France. "ThePrincess, being a foreigner herself, has a great many foreign friends.The Begonias think a good deal of themselves, but I think myself thatour own family has more reason to be proud. But come, we can speak tothe Princess now."
Princess Orchid was standing on a drooping petal of the beautiful flowerin which she lived. Her long robes of mauve and white swept over theflower as if they were themselves petals. Her hair was golden, and herface was the loveliest that Hedgeflower had ever seen. She smiled at himvery graciously when he was introduced to her, and after he had seenthat smile he took no interest in anything else that was going on. Henever glanced again at any of the fairies who had seemed to him sosplendid a short time before: he just sat down in a nice shady clump offerns and watched Princess Orchid. He had been to a great many partiesin his own hedge where the wild-roses grew, but he had never seen afairy or even a butterfly receive her guests with so much sweetness andgraciousness. He sat there for a long time and wished it could be forever. Then he remembered that perhaps he would never see Princess Orchidagain, and that made him sad.
A fairy party is never dull. Fairies are full of fun and enjoyeverything very much. There was a great deal of talking and laughing andsipping of dew flavoured with sunshine, which is the drink fairies likeinstead of tea. The fairies of the Canterbury Bells had brought theirmusic too, and gave a great deal of pleasure. It seemed as if the partywere going to be a great success, when unfortunately a disasterhappened which was talked about for many a day afterwards.
SHE SMILED AT HIM VERY GRACIOUSLY WHEN HE WAS INTRODUCEDTO HER]
On the roof of the glass house, just above the Princess's head, therewas a large spider who was very busy spinning his web. He was so busythat he did not look where he was going, and when people forget to lookwhere they are going it is a very common thing for accidents to happen.The spider came lower and lower, spinning all the time, while PrincessOrchid was talking very kindly to a shy little violet-fairy and was notnoticing anything else. Lower and lower, nearer and nearer, came thespider.
Suddenly a shrill little voice was heard to cry out--
"Take care, Princess, take care!" and Hedgeflower, flying from his clumpof ferns, flung himself against the great spider. He was too late._Flop!_ The spider fell with all his weight upon the flower in which thePrincess lived!
No flower could bear the weight of such a monster, and to the horror ofall the fairies the beautiful mauve orchid trembled and drooped, andthen slowly fell to pieces, petal by petal. The Princess spread herdainty wings and flew safely to the ground. Then she turned and lookedsadly at the ruin of her home. It lay bruised and crushed and shapelesson the earth, and if once a fairy's flower-home falls to pieces it cannever be put together again.
There was a great commotion in the glass house. All the fairies flewabout in a fuss, chattering angrily and trying to find the spider whohad done the mischief. But he had quickly climbed up the rope that hehad been spinning, and was hiding behind a leaf, so he was never found.
Now, it is a very uncommon thing to find a fairy who is not kind andanxious to help other people, so all the Princess's guests crowded roundher and begged her to come and stay with them. The fuchsia-fairiesdeclared they knew of the loveliest little fuchsia-bud which was in wantof some one to take care of it: it would really be a charity if thePrincess would live there. Prince Begonia objected to this, because, hesaid, a fuchsia-bud was not a fit place for the Princess to live in; theright home for her was in one of his magnificent palaces. Thelily-fairies cried out that this was all nonsense, because any one couldsee
that the Princess would feel more at home in a white flower than ina red one, after living so long in the pale orchid.
While all this talking was going on the Princess did not seem to bepaying very much attention to it, though of course she bowed and smiledand thanked the fairies very prettily, as was only right. She lookedround several times, as if she wanted some one who was not there. Atlast she said--
"Where is the little fairy with the kind face, who tried to save myhome?"
Several fairies pushed Hedgeflower forward. He felt and looked very shy.
The Princess smiled at him, and then she held out her hand.
"I will go with you," she said, "and be a wild-rose-fairy."
Hedgeflower dropped on one knee before her.
"My home is in a common hedge," he said, "and there are thorns round it.But there is no glass between me and the open sky. I think, Princess,that a fairy should be always under the open sky and the sunshine."
"That," said the Princess, "is exactly what I think myself."
So Hedgeflower and the Princess spread their wings and took each other'shands and flew away out of the window of the glass house, and across thegarden and over the hedge. They flew on and on, across field afterfield, till they came to the hedge with the wild roses.
There the Princess Orchid made her home, among the honeysuckles and themeadowsweet. She was no longer a princess with sweeping robes, but aquiet little wild-rose-fairy in a pink-and-white frock. But there was noglass between her and the sunshine.