Friendly Fairies Part 6

A great rough stone lay beneath a gnarled old tree. Years ago a tiny squirrel had climbed upon the stone to nibble some nuts, but before he had finished he was startled away.

"There!" thought the stone to himself as he saw a nut roll to the ground, "now that nut will take root and grow into a tree and I will have to lie here for ages beneath its branches. I wish the silly squirrel had gone some other place to eat the nuts!"

When the little nut took root and sent its tiny shoots up in the air, the old, rough Stone said, "There! I knew it!" and he disliked the tree from that time on.

The old, rough Stone watched the tiny green shoot grow and grow until it grew into an enormous tree.

"Just see how he pushes me up in the air with his roots!" the old, rough Stone said to himself.

When the gnarled tree was covered with leaves in the summer time, the old, rough Stone said, "Just see how he hides the blue sky from my view!"

And in the winter time when the limbs of the tree were bare, the old, rough Stone said, "Just see how he lets the snow and the cold rain fall right on me!"

One night during a heavy storm the old, rough Stone heard a crash, and in the morning he saw the gnarled tree lying upon the ground. "Now I shall be all by myself again!" he said. Then he counted the rings in the trunk of the gnarled tree until he came to three hundred, which was as far as he could count. "More than three hundred years have pa.s.sed since that silly little squirrel dropped the nut from which this tree grew!"

said the old, rough Stone to himself.

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Then men came with axes and cut up the tree and carried all of it away.

When the hot summer days came the sun beat down upon the old, rough Stone and he missed the shade of the gnarled tree. "My! It's hot!" said the old, rough Stone, "I wish the gnarled tree with its pretty rustling leaves were here again to shade me and keep me cool!"

When winter came the old, rough Stone missed the leaves which fell around him and kept him warm.

"Oh dear! How cold it is!" he cried, "I wish the gnarled tree would come back and scatter his leaves about me to protect me from the cold!"

So years and years and years pa.s.sed, and the great old, rough Stone lay all alone.

"I wish another squirrel would come to eat nuts upon me!" he thought.

"Squirrels are such knowing little creatures, I am sure another might drop a nut which would grow into a lovely tree to keep me company."

But, many more years pa.s.sed, and never again did a tiny squirrel sit upon the old, rough Stone and eat nuts. And never again did another tree grow above the old, rough Stone to keep him company.

"Ah me!" sighed the old, rough Stone, "We never know how well off we are until we lose something we really need!"

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SALLY MIGRUNDY

Sally Migrundy lived all alone in a tiny little cottage no larger than a piano box. This was plenty large enough for Sally Migrundy though, for she was a tiny little lady herself. Sally Migrundy's tiny little cottage stood at the edge of a stream, a beautiful crystal clear stream of tinkling water which sang in a continual murmur all day and all night to Sally Migrundy.

The stream tinkled merrily through a great forest which lay for miles and miles, a green mantle over the hills and valleys, and Sally Migrundy's tiny little cottage stood in the exact center of the great whispering forest.

All the wood creatures knew and loved Sally Migrundy and she knew and loved all of the wood creatures.

Each morning she would scatter food upon the surface of the singing stream and the lovely fish, their sides reflecting rainbow colors, would leap from the tinkling waters and splash about to show their pleasure.

And she would place food about her little garden for the birds and they in turn repaid her by their wonderful melodies.

Even the mama deer brought their little, wabbly-legged baby deer to introduce to Sally Migrundy; and she rubbed their sleek sides and talked to them so they couldn't but love her.

Now Sally Migrundy had always lived in her tiny cottage on the bank of the tinkling stream which ran through the whispering forest. She had lived there when the largest trees in the forest were tiny little sprouts. She had lived there long before that, and even still longer than that, and that, and that. Ever so much longer!

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One day a man who lived on a hill many, many miles away from the whispering forest said to his wife: "Mother, wouldn't you like to know where the water that flows from our spring goes to?" And his wife replied: "It must travel until it reaches the ocean!"

"Yes, I know that, mother" he replied, "but I mean, wouldn't it be interesting to know all of the country through which the water flows?"

So the more they talked of it, the more interested they became until the man finally wrote upon a slip of paper and put the paper into a tiny bottle. Then he put the bottle upon the surface of the spring water and watched it float away.

The little bottle floated along, tumbling over the tiny falls and tinkling ripples and bobbing up and down in the deep, blue, quiet, places until finally it floated to Sally Migrundy's and came to rest in the ma.s.s of pretty flowers where Sally Migrundy came each morning to dip her tiny bucket of water.

And so Sally Migrundy found the tiny bottle and took it into her tiny house to read the tiny note she saw inside.

It was such a nice, happy-hearted note Sally Migrundy said: "I will answer it!" So she wrote a happy-hearted note and asked whoever read it to come and visit her. Then she put her note in the tiny bottle and sent it dancing and bobbing down through the whispering forest, riding upon the surface of the singing stream. And Sally Migrundy's note floated along in the bottle until a little boy and a little girl saw it and picked it up.

And when they read Sally Migrundy's happy-hearted note asking them to visit her they started following up the stream until after a long, long time they came to the tiny little cottage.

Sally Migrundy was very much surprised to see the two children, for she had almost forgotten she had written the invitation.

"Howdeedoo!" said Sally Migrundy, "Where in the world did you children come from?"

"We found a note in a bottle and traveled up the stream until we came to your little cottage," they answered.

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"But won't your mamas and daddies be worried because you have been away from home so long?" Sally Migrundy asked.

"We are orphans," the children said.

Then Sally Migrundy kissed them and asked them into her tiny cottage.

The door was so small the children had to get down upon their hands and knees to crawl through. But when they got inside they were surprised to find that the rooms were very large. In fact, Sally Migrundy's living room was larger inside than the whole little cottage was on the outside, for, as you have probably guessed, Sally Migrundy's cottage was a magic house.

And in one corner of the living room there was a queer stand with a silver stem sticking up through the center, and the stem curved over and down towards five or six little crystal gla.s.ses.

It was a magic soda fountain, as the children soon found out, and they could have all the soda water they wished at any time.

In another room were two little snow white beds. These belonged to them, Sally Migrundy told the children. As you have probably guessed, the magic cottage took care to make everything comfortable for those who came inside.

And when Sally Migrundy had shown the children their pretty bed room she took them to the dining room and there they found a table which had everything nice to eat upon it. And so the children ate and ate and ate, for the magic table knew just what the person wished for who sat at it. So you may be sure there were plenty of cookies and ice cream and candies and golden doughnuts and everything.