More Tales in the Land of Nursery Rhyme | Page 9

it into a lovely
garden such as this."
Then, for one moment through the arching branches of the trees, there

appeared before him a maiden so beautiful that he was almost blinded
with the sight of her. She was all gold and shining, like the pictures of
Queen Elizabeth. She was smiling, too, but oh, so sadly!
"I will come," she said, "but you, yourself, must prepare the place for
the garden. When it is ready I will smile on it and you. Till then, though
I will come back with you and tell you what to do, you will never see
my face."
As she spoke, a veil of mist shrouded her face and her shining golden
dress. The flowers grew dim, the fruits ceased to shine, the fair maids
to curtsey, the fountains to play, and the birds to sing. The King
shivered. "I thought that when you came I would have my garden at
once," he muttered.
"Come," said the Princess gently.
Together they swam back to the Palace. The King was angry and
disappointed, but the beautiful picture of the golden Princess smiling at
him through the trees was fixed for ever in his mind. He began to think
that he would not mind doing a little digging, if only he might see her
face again. The first thing to be done the next day was to dismiss all the
gardeners; and of all the court only Sir Richard Byrde and Sir Hunny
Bee were allowed to stay in the back-yard, where the King was going
to work with his own hands.
Sometimes in the long days that followed, the Princess sent out her two
nymphs, Wynde and Worta to help him--but all the really hard work he
had to do quite alone. Long days they were, for first there was so much,
much, digging to be done. All the patent soils had got mixed up, and
twisted and turned the King's spade as he tried to dig. He was not
accustomed to digging either, and disliked getting hot, and also getting
blisters on his kingly hands--but as he toiled on he thought of the
Princess and her lovely garden.
Day after day he worked and worked. He felt as if each little tiny task
took him years and years; and then he had to wait what seemed to him
an eternity before anything happened at all; and then another eternity

before the Princess would come and smile upon his garden.
"Will it never be a garden?" he said at last. "Will you never come and
smile on it, and shall I never see your face again."
"Not to-day," she said.
At last, one day, after a long time, when his back was bowed with
digging and his hands horny with working, he suddenly stopped, for a
strange light seemed to be shining from the Palace steps behind him.
"Do not look round yet," said the Princess' soft voice. "Look straight in
front of you first."
He stood quite still, staring at what had been, until now, the backyard.
As he gazed there appeared before him paths of grass, green as
emeralds and sparkling with dew, and bordered on each side with shells
that glowed like mother-o'-pearl. Flowers, flowers everywhere,
Canterbury bells, and sunflowers, roses, lilies and lavender. Fruit trees
of gold and silver glittering in the sunshine, and behind, great dark
leafy trees inviting to shade and coolth. Fountains splashing, and birds
singing. He rubbed his eyes, thinking he must be dreaming.
Then he turned--and there, standing on the Palace steps, was the
Princess. No veil covered her face now. There she stood in all her
glorious golden beauty--smiling, radiant, as her name.
"You have your garden at last," she said.
Now this story might have been written about any garden, yours or
mine. For the honey bee still helps to grow the Canterbury bells, and
the birds still help to scatter seeds, and people still line their paths with
cockle shells, and sunflowers are still called "fair maids" in the country.
As for the Princess Mary Radiant--why, it's only in the sunshine that
the bells look like silver, and the cockle-shells like mother-o'-pearl, and
it's only to the sun that the sunflowers turn their heads every day . . .
and we all know the sun can be "contrary" enough!

JACK AND JILL
"When the well is dry, they know the worth of water"
Jack and Jill Went up the hill, To fetch a pail of water; Jack fell down
And broke his crown, And Jill came tumbling after.
"Oh dear, how I hate the rain," said Jack to Jill, as they stood at the
window watching the drops trickling down the window-pane. "We can't
do anything really nice when it is raining. I wish someone would