THE FAIRY TULIPS
ENGLISH FOLK-TALE
Once upon a time there was a good old woman
who lived in a little house. She had in her garden
a bed of beautiful striped tulips.
One night she was wakened by the sounds
of sweet singing and of babies laughing. She
looked out at the window. The sounds seemed
to come from the tulip bed, but she could see
nothing.
The next morning she walked among her
flowers, but there were no signs of any one having
been there the night before.
On the following night she was again wakened
by sweet singing and babies laughing. She rose
and stole softly through her garden. The moon
was shining brightly on the tulip bed, and the
flowers were swaying to and fro. The old woman
looked closely and she saw, standing by each
tulip, a little Fairy mother who was crooning and
rocking the flower like a cradle, while in each
tulip-cup lay a little Fairy baby laughing and
playing.
The good old woman stole quietly back to her
house, and from that time on she never picked
a tulip, nor did she allow her neighbors to touch
the flowers.
The tulips grew daily brighter in color and
larger in size, and they gave out a delicious
perfume like that of roses. They began, too, to
bloom all the year round. And every night the
little Fairy mothers caressed their babies and
rocked them to sleep in the flower-cups.
The day came when the good old woman died,
and the tulip-bed was torn up by folks who did
not know about the Fairies, and parsley was
planted there instead of the flowers. But the
parsley withered, and so did all the other plants
in the garden, and from that time nothing would
grow there.
But the good old woman's grave grew beautiful,
for the Fairies sang above it, and kept it
green; while on the grave and all around it there
sprang up tulips, daffodils, and violets, and other
lovely flowers of spring.
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