[Illustration: IVY] [Illustration: WINTER JASMINE] Most beautiful of them all is Rusialka, the queen of fairies and elves. She wears a necklet of dewdrops, and dew-drops sparkle in her dress and in her hair. She glides softly over the snow, and all the fairies follow her to a great elder bush that grows in the middle of the little wood. She knocks once and calls: "Lady Elder! are you within?" And the tree shoots out its green buds and the tender leaves unfold themselves. Then again the fairy Rusialka knocks and calls: "Lady Elder! Lady Elder! are you within?" And the sweet white blossoms open overhead, and a gentle rain of flowers falls upon the fairies. For the third time Rusialka calls: "Lady Elder! Lady Elder! Lady Elder! are you within?" And then the tree opens slowly, and the Lady Elder appears. She is very old, for she is the Mother of all the fairies and elves. [Illustration: MICHAELMAS DAISY] [Illustration: SNOWDROP] "What is it you want of me, my children?" she asks, in a voice like a silver bell. And all the fairies curtsey very long and low, and they answer her: "The New Year is come, Lady Elder; and we want you to grant us leave to wake the little flowers that sleep under the snow!" "The World is yet cold for the flowers, my children," answers the Lady Elder. "They are all asleep, each to be awakened in her time. But this you may do. You may call them up for to-night, and when you leave this wood in the morning, they will all go back to their beds again." "Our glad thanks to you, Ma'am," the fairies sing back joyfully. [Illustration: VIOLET] [Illustration: DOG ROSE] Then they all join hands and frolic away, singing as they go: "Little flowerets gay and sweet Hear the patter of our feet; Little flowerets sweet and gay Come and dance a roundelay!" Then slower and slower fades the dance. * * * * * "O Christmas Rose! O Christmas Rose!" called Rusialka, on the particular night I am telling you of. A little voice answered under the snow: "I am here, good ladies!" And the Christmas Rose, holding her blossom-standard in one hand, peeped out. "Will you join our dance?" asked Rusialka. The Christmas Rose held out her hands, and the merry party danced on singing a song the fairies love, till they came to a spot where the Ivy slept on a little brown bed of earth under a bright white coverlet of snow--with all her clusters of berries resting on her leaves. [Illustration: HAWTHORN] [Illustration: HONEYSUCKLE] "Wake up! Wake up! little Ivy!" cried Rusialka. "O, is it spring come again?" called out Ivy in a sleepy voice. "Or are you two sad friends who at parting want to give each other a token of true friendship?" "We are not sad friends at all," answered Rusialka. "We are the Little Ladies come to frolic on earth, and we want you, Ivy, to join in our frolic." "Isn't it cold out in the world now?" asked the little voice again.