The Song Fairy.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8, 24 February 1906, Page 57

The Song Fairy.

Once upon a time, when the fairies lived in the Australian bush, there dwelt a tribe of fairies in a beautiful fern gully, right away in the heart of the bush. The little people lived quietly and happily among the ferns and wild flowers, and the animals loved each one. But there was one fairy that the mother animals loved more than all the otners. That was the Song Fairy. At night, when the babies would not go to sleep, she would come down from the fairy king's palace, and sing to them, and the babies would stop crying, and snuggle in their beds and go .o sleep, while the mother animals rested as they listened. Every night she sang the babies to sleep. So they called her the Song Fairy. One day the king and qu.en gathered all their fairies round them, and the king said: “I have received a message from one of my godmothers to say that she is coming to pay us a visit. She will be her? to-morrow. Now, my dear people, I want you all to be very pleasant, for she is a very wicked old woman.” And the fairies promised to be very nice to her. There were great preparations during the day, and much wondering what the old fairy would be like. At last she came, and the fairies felt

that she must be wicked indeed she was such an evil-looking old bag. ■ vie must be pleasant to her, they whispered auioug themselves, "or she will cas. an evil spell on us. rhe larry queeu was rather timid oi lhe old lairy, but the king said, "Don t be an aid of tier; she wont huit you.’ There was a great feast in honour of the godmother’s visit, and during the meal lhe fairies noticed that lhe old dame cast her evil eye in the direction ol the Song Fairy seveial times. They began to be a bit afraid, but the Song Fairy did not s.-em to notice. \\ lien the feast was over, die king escorted his godmother to the music hall, a beautiful place, where each fairy had Lis or her own place. -\\e have some excellent musicians (among us,” said the king as he led his godmother to the seat of honour. “Our (and w.U play for you first. All the fairies assembled in the hall, £nd the fairy band began to play sweet fit very music. Th? queen suddenly glanced round tne room, and found that the Song Fairy had disappeared on her nightly enand. sue looked anxious. "She is sure to asK. for her,' she thought. The old dame was pleased with t.ie piusic, and asked for more. . V\ hen that was finished, she said, “1 have heal d a great deal about one of your number, whom you call the Song Fairy. Let her sing for me.” "Certainly,’’ said the king, looking pound the room. "1 will send for her,' and he despatched messengers at once. "Why is she not here?' demanded the old woman.

"Because she has a duty to do every evening at this time. Hark! You will hear her.” He held up his finger for silence, and jtrom the gully came the sweetest singing imaginable, notes that would have softened any heart but the old hag’s. Her eyes blazed, and she turned on the Icing and queen in a fury of anger. "She sings to the squirming, squealing, little wretches down there, but I can (wait.” Tlie queen laid a timid hand on her arm. , , . , “You would not have her neglect her duty, would you? Besides, how sweet is her singing, how different to the babies crying. Oh, it' is miserable how they cry if she is a bit late. ’ The old woman shook her hand off. “Don’t talk to me. 1 can see what makes your kingdom so lax and disrespectful. You treat them all as if they were your equals. I keep my subjects in their places.” The king was growing angry. _ At last the messengers returned, and with them the Song Fairy. She hastened to the king’s seat and falling on one knee b■fore him, said, “Forgive me, Majesty, for keeping you waiting. The bibies took so long to go to sleep to-night.” The king smiled at her and said, * It is not I, dear Song Fairy, but my relative, who is waiting.”

“Yes, and it is to me you should kneel for forgiveness. How dare you keep me waiting while you amused those miserable, squealing children down yonder.” The little fairy looked surprised, but knelt before the angry old hag. “Pardon me, madame, but would you rather have heard their crying than have waited a little? If you will forgive me now, I will sing as much as you like.” She smiled at them all, a tiny, shining figure, with her long golden hair and tiny glittering wings. The old fairy rose up. “You will never sing for ir.e, or for your king and queen again. You shall be a stone, a white stone, for a hundred years, and at the end of that time you shall become an animal, since you are so fond of them.” With a yell, the old hag touched tlie little fairy with the old crooked stick she carried, and before them all the beloved Song Fairy sank down on the giound and shrivelled to a small white stone. The queen began to weep, and the king was angry; He beckoned to some of his strong subjects, and they carried the old hag, struggling, out to the glen, where th y burned her. The queen’s attendants were trying to comfort her, when the king returned. “Dear,” said he, “ we have burned her; she is no more. We will put our beloved fairy in the fern gully which she loved, and when she wakes she will still be among the animals. If we are not here, she will eome to us.”

So they carried the white stone out among the ferns, to rest there a hundred years. The pioneer’s axe had sounded through the bash for some months, and now the blue smoke crept up from the chimney of the new wooden house that stood at the entrance of the gully. It was getting dark, and the pioneer was in the kitchen of the little house with his wife. Their evening meal was done, and they sat by the Hie talking. Presently from the corner of the room came the sound of a baby crying. The woman got up and took tlie little one from its bed. “I’ll go outside. Perhaps he doesn't like my pipe,” said the man getting out into the verandah as quickly as he could. Up and down, up and down, the woman walked, hushing and patting, but of no use, the baby refused to go to sleep again. Then suddenly there came, floating io, the most delightful singing that ever was hearu. me baoy nearing it, Ccaseu crying, and presently ns luumb was poxeu into ns littfe mourn, and no more was heard oi it. The woman laid him in his bed anu crept out to her husband. "Where did it come irom?” she askeu, wonderingly. "Goodness knows, it was lovely, wasn’t it?” A possum sprang on to the veramiah with a "plomp.” The woman was startled. "Don t be afraid,” said the "possum, "1 cannot hurt you. 1 have helped you this evening; now 1 want to ask you to do something ior me.” "If it was you who sang just now, i will do anything,” they said. "Thank you. A hundred years ago this evening 1 was a fairy and lived in this fern gully. An evil lairy turned me to stone because 1 sang the baby animals to sleep. This evening 1 woke and found myself an opossum, and alone- My friends have gone from here and 1 am lonely. To-night 1 shall sit on your gate post; in the morning you will lind me on the ground at the foot of it. Will you bury m>e somewhere near the nouse; that is all I ask.”

“But won’t you stay with us? We will love you so much,” said the woman.

But the little creature shook its head and turned away. “I am so lonely without the others.” It sprang nimbly to the gate post and sat there, a little huddled up grey bunch, blinking its bright eyes at the stars.

in the morning the man found it, lying at the foot of the post, stiff and cold. As he laid it in the hole he had dug, there fell on the soft fur, a tear, from the man’s eye. In time there grew a large tree in the place where the fairy was buried. And at night, when the children are restless, and tired, and cross, a gentle breeze comes down the gully, and stirs the leaves of the gum tree, and the child ren hear it singing softly to them, and they smile and are glad. As they snuggle into their warm beds they say: —“Hush, go to sleep, the Song Fairy is singing to us.” DOROTHY SCOTT-YOUNG.