Old Farm Fairies: A Summer Campaign In Brownieland Against King Cobweaver's PixiesMcCook, Henry C. (Henry Christopher)
Science
Old Farm Fairies: A Summer Campaign In Brownieland Against King Cobweaver's Pixies
McCook, Henry C. (Henry Christopher)
Insects -- Juvenile literature; Spiders -- Juvenile literature
"To the cove. Go!" shouted Madam Breeze; and away the party went over
orchard and meadow, over town, bridge and river. They stopped at the
summit of a hill that stands at the mouth of the cove, whose brow has
been worn by frosts, heats and storms of centuries, until it stands up a
bald cliff. The naked rock below has a rough likeness to a human face,
and the fringe of bushes underneath gives the idea of a vast beard. The
top of the cliff is covered with trees that look in the far distance
like tufts of frizzly hair upon the Giantstone's poll. From the midst of
these rose (when these records were made) two pine trees. Their tall
trunks were quite bare, their bushy branches interlocked closely, and
thus was left a goodly sized opening, through which at that time of the
year the sun was first seen of mornings coming down into the valley. The
fairies called this the Gate of the Sun, and it was to visit four sister
Elves who kept this gate that Madam Breeze had now come. The gate stood
wide open, for the sunshine was already gone through to the town and
hills beyond. In a snug little cave in the limestone front of the hill,
a sort of "mouth" to the Giantstone's face, the four Elves lived.
Lawe followed as briskly as possible, swung himself from bough to bough
of the overhanging shrubbery, landed upon a narrow ledge, and found his
way to the mouth of the Cave of the Clouds. Madam Breeze, now expanded
in bodily form to goodly size, had already entered and was bustling
around the place calling for the sisters.
"Hi! Cirrus! Ho, Stratus! Here, here--where are you?--Wheeze!"
The dead dry leaves whirled around and around as the merry Elf called,
and the echoes answered her voice.
"Ho--e--oh! Cumulus! Nimbus! Can't you hear?"
The bustling Elf had no cause to be impatient, for she had scarcely
spoken ere four forms slowly rose in the shadows of the inner cave, and
began to move deliberately toward the light. The first advanced with
airy footstep, shaking about her face a cloud of long curling locks,
almost white. She was dressed in a white robe, covered with trellis-work
patterns, inwrought with thin silvery streaks. This was Elf Cirrus.
The second sister was a plump, sober-looking Elf, whose hair was
gathered in woolly puffs upon her round head, and was a curious mixture
of white and black. Her robe was covered with figures of cones,
hemispheres and white-topped mountains, which figures were touched here
and there with many bright colors. This was Cumulus.
Elf Stratus wore a grayish robe flounced with bands of divers colors,
many of them edged with bright silver and golden fringe like the rays of
the setting sun. Her dark hair was worn smooth, and was crossed by a
band of purple ribbons that girdled the crown.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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