He unrolled his feathery wings and waved them fast in the air to dry them. What a fine fellow he was now! How the sun shone, after the long darkness of his house! How beautiful was the day!

"Good-bye, old house," he said. "I shall never need you again, for now I can fly from my enemies." He darted swiftly through the air to lead his new life--a new life indeed, for he never again needed to eat.

THE RAIN-FAIRY

A rain-fairy sat up from her sleep in a pink poppy, stretched herself, and yawned. "Oh, dear!" she said. "It is morning again, and I have to work. The same old work, day after day, on the same old earth. How tired I am of it! I think I will go up to the blue sky and play with the sunbeams and clouds. It must be lovely up there."

She flew up to the sky. For some time she wandered about admiring the strange and beautiful things in this new land. When she grew tired of that she went to the Sunbeams and said: "May I play with you?"

"We are not playing," said one of the Sunbeams politely. "We all have our day's work to do. I am just going to ripen the early strawberries, and my little sisters are coming to help me. Our cousins over there have to look after the roses. Indeed, we are all too busy to play."

She flew off.

The Fairy went to the white morning clouds. "Play with me, please,"

she begged.

"We really have no time just now," said the Little Clouds. "We have a shower and a rainbow to prepare before noon."

"Dear me! Everybody seems to be as busy here as we are down on the earth," thought the Fairy. She wandered about again till the afternoon. Then she went to the Afternoon Clouds and asked them to play with her.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "She went to the Afternoon Clouds and asked them to play with her"]

"We are far too busy," said the Afternoon Clouds. "We have to shade two hills and a valley from the heat of the Sun, and make a crown for the mountains you see below you."

The Rain-Fairy could not find anyone who had time to play, so she had to spend the day by herself. It was dull and lonely, but she would not go down to the earth. "They surely must play some time. I will wait and see," she thought.

Sunset came, and the Clouds and Sunbeams all pa.s.sed in turn before the great Sun to report to him on their day's work. The Rain-Fairy went with them, for she saw that each one pa.s.sed on from the Sun to a great cloud-hall, where a star-dance was to be held that night. Soon she herself stood before the Sun.

"A Rain-Fairy in the sky!" said the Sun in surprise. "What have you done to-day, little Rain-Fairy?"

The Rain-Fairy hung her head. "I have done no work," she said. "I was tired of working on the earth, so I came up here to play."

The Sun's kindly smile changed to a frown, "Then you may not go to the star-dance," he said. "Go back to your work on the earth. We have no time for play here till our day's work is done."

The Fairy returned sadly to the earth, but she had learned her lesson; she took up her work again and did everything well. She closed the dainty flower-cups that the rain might not wash their colours out, and dried the soft petals again when the shower had pa.s.sed. She hid the b.u.t.terflies and moths in dry hiding places when it rained hard, and she covered the wee birds in their nests. Day after day she worked patiently, remembering how the Sunbeams and Clouds found no time for play.

One day the Sunbeams came to her with a message. "The great Sun has watched your work," they said, "and he is well pleased. He bids us say that as a reward you are invited to the star-dance to-night."

THE DISOBEDIENT SUNBEAMS

The story ended only to-day, but it began thousands and thousands of years ago. In those days the sun shone as he shines now, and the Sunbeam Children had their work to do before they were free to play, just as they have now. Some had to coax the flower-buds out of their cosy blankets; some had to stroke the round cheeks of the berries till they turned red; some had to slip through the clear water to nurse and comfort the fish babies. But in those days there were five little Sunbeam Brothers who liked play much better than work. Day after day they played at hide-and-seek between the leaves of a tall tree, instead of doing the tasks that were set for them. Time after time they were warned, but they would not reform; at last the Sun in his anger punished them with a terrible punishment.

"Enter into the trunk of the tree," he commanded. "Now," he said, when they had tremblingly obeyed him, "you shall remain there as long as the tree remains. When it falls you shall be free, but not till then."

This was a dreadful sentence to the Sunbeams. To be shut away from the light and the air and the other Sunbeams was bad enough, but to have to endure it all through the life of the tree was worse. They dared not rebel, however; they had to submit quietly to their imprisonment; the years went by and the tree lived on.

But a worse fate came. Just when the tree was growing old and their freedom seemed near, the whole forest sank, and the sea flowed over it.

Tons and tons of sand and gravel were brought by the waves and flung upon the forest, choking it up till the tops of the great trees were covered. The five crouched in despair at the foot of their tree. They could not die, for death is impossible to Sunbeams; but how were they to be delivered now? Under this great weight of earth and water they might be imprisoned for thousands of years before anything happened to release them.

And that is just what happened. For thousands of years the forest lay under the sea, not decaying, but slowly changing from wood to coal.

Then a change came. The land was pushed up again by heat from below; by and by it rose high above the sea. But now the trees were hidden by the earth above them, over which gra.s.s and plants soon grew. The Sunbeams were still imprisoned.

Then one day men opened the earth and dug out the coal, and the piece containing the Sunbeams was placed on the fire and burnt. At last freedom had come. Quivering with joy, the five Sunbeam Children sprang out and danced on top of their prison house.

"How bright those flames are, and how they jump!" said the children sitting round the fire.

The coal burned to red embers and fell to the bottom of the grate.

Spark! spark! Up flew the five Sunbeam Children out through the tall chimney to live again their life of work and play.

"It was a dreadful punishment, but it has taught us a lesson," they said.

"I am glad to hear it," said the Sun.

WHITE-BRIER

She grew at the very end of the rose-garden, next the road--that is what vexed the other trees.

"You are only a common Brier," they said, "and yet you are placed in the most prominent position. Everybody who pa.s.ses can see you, while we are half-hidden by your spreading branches."

"Look at us!" cried the Red Roses. "Are we not worthy to be seen? Our petals are like rich velvet, not pale and colourless like yours. In the morning light we glow like ma.s.sed rubies, but you cannot glow at all."

"We are like bits of the sun brought down from the sky," said the Cloth-of-Gold Roses, "and yet you have the presumption to stand between us and the pa.s.sers-by."

"If you were even a Sweet-Brier it would not be so bad," sighed the Tea-Roses; "but you have no scent, so what is the use of you?"

Then the biggest of the Pink Roses spoke. "You have only one row of petals," she said severely. "That stamps you at once as of low birth.

We others are all of higher growth than that. Look at my petals, set so closely one above another that you cannot see between them! You are a n.o.body, and yet you are allowed to retain the best position. It is most unfair."

White-Brier had listened to it all in a sorrowful silence, but now she spoke: "I am sorry, indeed, to be in the way," she said. "I should be glad to be at the back of the garden, for I know you are all much more beautiful than I am. But I was placed here, and here I am bound to grow. I cannot help having only one row of petals and no scent. It is my nature."

The other roses only turned their backs on her at this, but the bees crowded into her flower-cups to comfort her. "Don't take any notice of their jealousy," they said. "If you have only one row of petals, still they are so white and delicate that they can compare with any in the garden; if you have but little scent, you have a sweeter heart than any rose here. We love you best of all, and will do our best to carry your pollen well, so that your seed-b.a.l.l.s may be well filled."

The summer pa.s.sed; one by one the roses faded and showered their petals on the earth. Autumn came, and the green leaves turned red and yellow and then brown; and they, too, dropped upon the earth. Winter came; the proud rose-trees stood bare and th.o.r.n.y, shivering in the winter storms.

But White-Brier was not bare. Her roses and leaves had indeed faded, but the little seed-cases below the flowers had grown into green b.a.l.l.s that swelled and turned red, and now the whole bush was hung with scarlet berries. How they glowed as they swung in the wind! The pa.s.sers-by stopped to look at the bush. "What a beautiful rose-tree!"

one of them said to the master of the garden. "What a glorious bit of colour in this gloomy winter weather!"

"Yes," he said; "that is why I planted the tree in the front of the garden. In the summer there are many beautiful flowers everywhere, but in the winter there are so few, that it is good to have a tree like that where everyone can see it."