Seven Little People and their FriendsScudder, Horace Elisha
Science
Seven Little People and their Friends
Scudder, Horace Elisha
Children -- Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction; Children's stories; Fairies -- Juvenile fiction; Magic -- Juvenile fiction
Walking-Sticks thought it not quite becoming.
The inhabitants of the Garden had been quite impatient for the Faeries
to be through, for their turn was yet to come. It would be quite
impossible to enumerate them all. The Flowers could not come themselves
but they sent their choicest perfumes, and the Miller was so obliging as
to carry for them a great many charming and delicate tints. The Bee gave
a drop of honey, but he was so loud and coarse in his way and carried so
many weapons about him that all were glad when he went. The Humming-Bird
would not come, the Honeysuckle was his Queen, he said. The Red Ant said
it was all fol-de-rol and there was no such thing as a faery in his
opinion, much less a Queen Faery; and he stayed in the Hill and walked
through all the passages to see that every thing was in order. The
Butterfly, poor thing! was dead, and the Black Ant of course was too
busy burying him to attend to such frivolous matters. The Grasshopper,
however, came the whole length of the Garden, and each skip was
precisely as long as the last. It took just one hundred and sixty-seven
skips to reach the Lilac Bush. His uniform looked finely, and the
Walking-Sticks rejoiced that here at last was one come who had style and
observed etiquette. It was rather formal to be sure. The Walking-Sticks
each bowed eleven times, and the Grasshopper raised his elbow so often
and with so much precision, that you would have said it was very nicely
calculated. He made a set speech which the Queen listened to, and then
he passed out again; but he left no present, perhaps he thought he had
honoured her enough by coming to pay his respects.
The Faeries agreed that the reception must be all over now and that the
last of the inhabitants had come and gone; so they were ready for sport.
They did not know--how should they? that the Earth worm was on the way;
but he never reached the place in time; he was so blind that he lost the
road frequently. Room was now made for a dance. The Fire-flies improved
their lights and arranged them more artistically, and the Faeries took
their places. The inhabitants of the Garden could only look on. Just as
they were ready to begin, a bustling and confusion was observed among
the group of house Faeries. What could be the stir? They were evidently
very much excited, and the reason was this: One of their number, their
spokesman at the reception, was leaning against a stalk of clover and
looking up at the sky through the Lilac Bush. We think it hard to count
the stars, they are so many in number, but to a Faery who once lived
among them the stars are familiar as household faces. Thus the little
Faery was aware of a new star that at that instant appeared in the sky.
It was a very little star and rested between two larger ones, but it did
not escape his quick eye and he was now all alive with excitement.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account