North Cornwall Fairies and LegendsTregarthen, Enys
Science
North Cornwall Fairies and Legends
Tregarthen, Enys
Folklore -- England -- Cornwall (County); Legends -- England -- Cornwall (County)
and on the top of the cake is a dinky bird with wings spread out all
ready to fly.'
Phillida dreamt as she was ordered, and in her dream she saw the
cake, and that it was a beautiful cake, and the little cake-bird was
a sweet little bird!
'What a handsome cake!' she cried out aloud in her sleep; 'and the
little cake-bird is a dear little bird, and it looks as if it can fly
and sing:' and she laughed so heartily that the Piskeys laughed too,
and one of the Dinky Men turned head over heels on the patchwork
quilt out of sheer delight that the child was so pleased with her
beautiful dream-cake and the little dream-bird.
'Dream that Grannie Tredinnick is as pleased with the cake and the
cake-bird as you are,' said another little Piskey, stepping on to the
bridge of Phillida's nose, 'and that she thinks it is even better than
the cakes which were made for her when she was a croom of a cheeld,
and the little cake-bird is more like a real bird than those that
were on top of her Christmas cakes.'
The child dreamt as the Piskey ordered, and much beside that the
Dinky Man never thought of ordering. In her dream she not only
heard her grandmother say what a beautiful cake it was, and that
the little cake-bird looked like a real bird, but that she said:
'We must cut and eat the cake, but spare the little cake-bird.' In
her sleep she saw the old woman, dressed in her Sunday gown and cap,
lean over the small oak table and cut her such a big slice of the
cake that she cried out in amazed delight:
'What a great big piece you have given me, Grannie!' and her laugh
was as happy and gay as a Piskey's laugh. 'But I must not eat all this
myself; I must crumble some of it for the little moor-birds, and put
a piece out on the doorstep for the Dinky Men. It isn't a dream-cake,
Grannie, but a Christmas cake, and it has a little Christmas bird
on top!'
The Piskeys looked at one another with a peculiar expression in
their round little eyes when the child spoke of putting a bit of her
Christmas cake on the step of the door for them, and one said, 'Dear
little maid!' and another said 'Pretty child!' and one little fellow,
with a beard reaching to his feet, cried, 'How kind of her to want us
poor little Piskeys to have part in the Christmas joy!' One little
Dinky Man whispered: 'Perhaps it is not true what the old whiddle
[18] says, after all--that we are not good enough for heaven nor bad
enough for hell. The child does not think so, evidently, or she would
not be so anxious for us to share her little Christmas cake.'
The Piskey who sat cross-legged on Phillida's arm uncrossed his lean
little legs, rose up and stepped on to her nose, and as he walked
over its bridge he said ever so tenderly:
'Dream, sweet little Phillida--dream that you shared your cake with
the dicky-birds, and put a piece of it on the doorstep for the Dinky
Men, which they will treasure as long as there are any Dinky Men.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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