The Counterpane Fairy | Page 9

than a feather, and he felt so
happy that he clapped his hands together and turned head over heels in
the air. As he came right side up again he saw a bit of thistle-down
drifting on up the hill, and he was so little that when he flew after it and
set himself astride of it, it seemed as big as a barrel to him. He floated
on up the hill with it, and the wind was like a cushion behind him.
As they reached the edge of the hill the thistle-down caught on a bush,
and Teddy almost has his leg wedged between it and a leaf. He jumped
off in a hurry, and stood looking about him and wondering what he
should do next.
Suddenly he saw something that made him open his eyes wide in
astonishment. Four large black-and-yellow butterflies were tied to a
knot on an old tree close by, but it was not at the butterflies themselves
that he wondered, for he had often seen them flitting about the fields; it
was at the way they were loaded down with the strangest things: all
sorts of fairy household furniture--little chairs and tables, bedsteads,
tiny pots and pans, a great soup-kettle almost as large as a huckleberry,

two thistle-down mattresses, and a number of other things. All these
were very neatly packed and tied between the butterflies' wings with
spider-web ropes.
In the middle of the knot was a hole, but instead of being round, as a
knot-hole generally is, it was square, and there was a little door fitted
into it.
Suddenly this door opened, and on the threshold of it stood a beautiful
little fairy. She stood there looking about, and then she drew from her
pocket a handkerchief, thin and delicate as gossamer, and wiped her
eyes. After that she began to sob, and Teddy knew that what he had
thought was the buzzing of a bee inside the knot had really been the
sound of her weeping.
"Hello!" called the elf.
The fairy stopped sobbing and looked about her. When she saw Teddy
she stared at him for a moment and then she began to wipe her eyes and
sob again.
Teddy climbed up the branch of a blackberry bush until he was quite
close to the knot-hole, and sat down on the stem and stared at her.
"What makes you cry?" he asked.
Still the fairy said nothing, but she folded her little handkerchief,
though it was quite wet, and put it carefully back into her pocket.
Just then in the doorway at her side appeared another fairy. He was
quite different from her, though he, too, was very small. He was as
withered as a dried pea, and looked as though he must be at least a
hundred years old.
"Is everything packed up?" he asked in a querulous voice. Then his
eyes fell on Teddy the elf. He scowled until his little pin-pricks of eyes
almost disappeared. "Ugh! there's one of those nasty gamblesome
elves," he said. "Now mischief's sure to follow."
"I'm not a gamblesome elf!" cried Teddy.
"Yes you are!" said the withered old fairy. "You needn't tell me! Look
at your red cap and the way your toes turn down. I say you are a
gamblesome elf."
Teddy looked at his toes and sure enough they did turn down. "I
wonder if I am a gamblesome elf," he thought.
But the old fairy paid no more attention to him. He seemed to be in a
great hurry and very cross. He bustled in and out of the knot-hole,

bringing a broom and an old coat that had been forgotten, and packed
them on the butterflies, and then he helped the lady fairy on to one, and
clambered on another himself.
After they were all ready to start he found that he had forgotten to
unhitch the butterflies, and grumbling and scolding he clambered down
again and untied them. Then he climbed back once more, and away
they flew down the hillside and out of sight, the lady fairy weeping all
the time as though her heart would break.
"I wonder what she was crying about," said the gamblesome elf to
himself, as he stared after them.
"I can tell you that easily enough," said a little voice so close to his
elbow that it made him jump.
He looked around and saw close to him a brown beetle, sitting on a
blackberry leaf. Teddy looked at the beetle for a while in silence, and
then he said, "Well, why is it they're going?"
"It's all because of old Mrs. Owl," said the beetle. "She and old Father
Owl used to live deep in the woods in a hollow tree, but one time they
determined to move out