The Sugar Fairies

Dominion, Volume 24, Issue 144, 14 March 1931, Page 21

The Sugar Fairies

Judy and Phoebe were playing at shop. Nurse had gone out for the afternoon, and when they came in from their walk they had coaxed Bessie, the under-nurse, to get them some groceries from Cook. Phoebe had had a lovely little pair of scales, with weights complete, given to her on her birthday, so she was to be the shop-woman to-day, while Judy rummaged in the dolls’ drawer and found a silk handkerchief and an old shawl, in which she dressed up to be a grand lady, as she said. “But grand ladies do not go and buy their own things to eat, Judy!” “That’s all you know about it, Phibs. Nannie says most of them do nowadays, and that the whole world is topsy-turvy. I don’t sec how it can be quite, ’cos we are not walking ou our heads, are we? Are you ready?” “Yes; hurry up.” “Ahem! good morning, Mrs. Jones. Have you any good sugar to-day?” “Yes, Mam. I have some lovely moist sugar here.” “Where does it come from?”

“I specs they dig it out of the ground.” “Dig lovely white sugar like that out of the dirty ground!” shrieked Judy, forgetting her dignity. “Well, I don’t see why not,” retorted Phoebe. “It shines just like diamonds, and those are dug out of the ground.” . “We’ll ask Bessie when she comes back.” “Don’t b’leeve she’ll know.” “I know!” said a voice, and the children saw, sitting on the edge of the scales, a beautiful little creature with a wonderful white dress on that glittered all over, while on her head was a green band in which were pretty waving plumes like creamy feathers. Her eyes were a deep bright blue and her hair was like ripples of sunshine. In fact, she seemed to be shining all over from the top of her head to the toes of her dainty shoes. “And how do you know?” asked the little girls together. IHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

“Can’t ,you guess who I am? I am Crystalline, the Sugar Fairy!” X. The children had never met a real fairy before, though they had often longed to, so now they made a nice little curtsey as they had been taught to do in the dancing class, and then said eagerly: “Oh, dear Fairy Crystal, do please tell us all you can about sugar.” "Turn round three times and you wJU see In minutes five where you will be” Judy and Phoebe took hands and turned round as they were bid, then, to their surprise, they found the whole, of the hursery had disappeared and they were standing on the banks of a canal, looking at a great big field full of tall green plants, out of the top of which grew the same sort of feathery plumes that the Fairy wore. A lot of black men were busy cutting down the plants, and as well as their conversation, which was in a strange language, the children heard hundreds of tiny voices chattering. Fairy Crystal laughed. “You are .wondering where the voices come from. Look I” She waved over each of them one of the plumes from the sugar plants, for that is what they were, to give them fairy vision, and instantly Judy and Phoebe saw inside the stems, and in each one was a tiny brown figure dressed in green. “Those are earth elves; they take care of a little shoot when it is first put into the ground, and have charge of the cane until it flowers and is ripe and ready to be cut. If the cane grows well, King Suk Kar, the Head of all the'Sugar Fairies, allows them to be promoted to the rank of crystals, and then they become Fairies. Now watch, you see the canes are being cut down by these men, tied into bundles and put on a boat; then those bullocks which are chained to the punt tow.italong the canal to the factory. Come, we will get into this boat.” As the fairy had made the children invisible, no one noticed them sitting on the top of a bundle of canes. The sky was very blue, the sun shining,

and when they got to the factory they smelt a most delicious smell of toffee. Fairy Crystal laughed as she saw them, sniffing the air. “Yes, it is nice at first, but you would soon get very tired of it if you had it all day.” They hopped out on to the bank and went up to the factory, where they saw the canes being crushed and a dark, thick juice being squeezed out. “But what happens to the Elves?” asked Judy anxiously. “Oh, they are being transformed. All their darkness is being crushed out of them. Now we will go and see the tanks where this thick stuff is cleaned.” When they reached the first tank Phibs asked what the yellow stuff in it was.

“That is the clean syrup, and it is left to crystallise. When it is finished the little Elf wakes up and finds himself a sugar fairy with wings. In each lot of sugar there is one fairy who gives it all its sweetness, which you like so much? Look, here is a great pile of white sugar ready to go into* another room.” Just as the children looked they saw the heap rise in the middle, and out crept a little Fairy Crystal just like Fairy Crystal. "Good morning, everyone,” she said brightly. “I’m just off to see to the packing of my load,” and off she flew with some men who were carrying away the tank. “I suppose people like us can never be Sugar Fairies?” asked Phoebe sadly. “I should so love to wear a sparkly dress like yours!” “I am afraid mortals are too big,” said Fairy Crystal, smiling, "and if you wore my dress you would find it very inconvenient, because it is all made of sugar, and you would make it melt. Touch my dress and see if lam not telling you the truth.” The little girls shyly did as they were told, and then put their fingers to their mouths. Sure enough, they were Quite sweet!

“Now I will tell you something. The nearest you can get to being a Fairy is to try and be as sweet-tempered as you can,” said Fairy Crystal, “and then I can always come and see you. Cross and disagreeable children never see Fairies, for King Suk Kar has forbidden us to go near them. But when you are sweet tempered you are sweetening the world just as we sweeten the sugar, so you see you are doing the same kind of work.” “May we come here again some day?” "Perhaps; but now it Is time to go home. "Turn round three times and yon will That safe at home again you’ll be.” And they had just sat down as Bessie came in at the door. When Mother asked Bessie how Judy and Phoebe had behaved in her care she said: “Oh, Mam, they’ve both been the sweetest little girls; it’s been a pleasure to have had them to look after.” Fairy Crystal laughed as she spread her wings and whispered to the children: “You see, you have both begun to be Sugar Fairies already.”