Fairies I Have Met Read online

  _THE BIRD OF SHADOWS AND THE SUN-BIRD_

  Little Agatha lived in the days when castles were as common in the landas cottages are now, and when there were plenty of magicians alwaysready to help people out of difficulties.

  One of the castles was Agatha's home. It stood on a hill and wassurrounded by a dark wood. Agatha was a lonely little girl: she had nosisters or brothers to play with. She used to stand at the narrow windowin the castle tower and look out into the wood, and long to run aboutwith other little girls. If you had seen her you would have thought hera very funny figure in her long gown reaching nearly to the ground, anda close cap over her curls.

  In the evening Agatha could see very little when she stood at thewindow, but still she stood there and looked at the dark wood. It wasthen that the nightingale, the Bird of Shadows, sang to her; and thiswas what she liked better than anything else. She thought thenightingale's voice was lovely to hear, and she wondered why it was sosad.

  Evening after evening the lonely little girl looked out through thetower window listening to the nightingale, till she felt that he was herfriend. Sometimes she spoke to him.

  "How much I should like to fly out of the window and be a nightingaletoo!" she said. "Then we would play together in the wood, and I shouldhave a voice like yours--ever so sweet and ever so sad."

  Sometimes she tried to sing, but she found her voice was not in theleast like the nightingale's.

  Every day she became more anxious to be a nightingale, until at last shethought about it always, and yet seemed no nearer to her wish. She hopedsometimes that her curls might turn into feathers; but after severalweeks of wishing she saw that the curls were still made of yellow hair.She began to be afraid she would never be anything but a little girl.

  One day she heard some of the maids talking together. They were speakingof the Wise Man, the Magician, who lived in the dark cave on the side ofthe hill, and could do the most wonderful things. In fact, they said,there was hardly anything he couldn't do; you had only to tell him whatyou wanted most and he could manage it for you.

  "Perhaps he could turn me into a nightingale," thought Agatha. "I'll goand ask him, anyway."

  So while the maids were still talking she slipped out of the castle, andthrough the wood, and down the hill, till she came to the dark cave. Herlong frock caught on the brambles as she went, and her hands were a gooddeal scratched, and once she tripped and fell. But of course she did notmind anything of that kind, because she was thinking all the time aboutthe nightingale.

  Agatha walked into the cave without knocking, and found the Magician athome. I dare say you know that all good Magicians have kind faces andlong white beards. This one was a good Magician, so he had a kind faceand a long white beard. Agatha was not in the least afraid of him. Shetold him at once why she had come.

  "Please," she said, "I want to be a nightingale."

  "A nightingale, my dear?" said the Wise Man. "That is a very strangething for you to want to be! Don't you know that the nightingale is theBird of Shadows, who sings by night and is very sad?"

  "I shouldn't mind that a bit," said Agatha, "if I could only fly aboutand sing with a beautiful voice."

  "Well, then," said the Wise Man, "if you don't mind being sad, this iswhat you must do. Every day you must come here to see me, and each timeyou must bring me one of the pearls from your necklace."

  Agatha clasped her hands tightly round her neck, as if to save herpearls. She wore them in a chain, and the chain was so long that itpassed twice round her neck and then fell in a loop that reached nearlyto her waist.

  "Oh, must it be my pearls?" she asked eagerly. "Would nothing else doinstead? I have some very nice things at home--really nice things. Ihave some lovely toys, and a gold chain, and a pony, and--oh, lots ofthings. Wouldn't you like some of those?"

  "No," said the Wise Man, "I must have the pearls if you want to flyabout and sing with a beautiful voice. Nothing else will do. For everypearl you bring me I will give you a feather from the nightingale, theBird of Shadows."

  Agatha went home slowly, still clasping her pearls tightly in her hands.She liked them better than anything she had. She liked to watch the softlights and shades on them, and to think of the wonderful sea they camefrom. She did not feel sure that it was worth while to give them up,even for the sake of being a bird and learning to sing.

  But in the evening, when she stood by the tower window as usual, andlistened to the nightingale, she had no longer any doubts as to what sheshould do. To be able to sing like the nightingale was more importantthan anything else, she felt. And besides, if she were going to beturned into a bird, the pearls would not be of much use to her in anycase. She was pretty sure that nightingales never wore pearl necklaces.

  The next day she slipped one of the pearls off her chain, and then sheran out of the castle and through the wood and down the hill, till shecame to the dark cave.

  The Wise man smiled when he saw her.

  "Here is----" she began, and then she could say no more, because of thelump in her throat.

  The Wise Man looked rather sorry for her, but he took the pearl withoutspeaking. Then he gave her the feather he had promised her, and she wentaway again. As she climbed the hill and ran back through the wood to thecastle, she tried to feel glad that she had the feather instead of thepearl.

  For a long, long time the same thing happened every day. Every dayAgatha slipped a pearl off her chain, and then ran out of the castle andthrough the wood and down the hill, till she came to the dark cave; andevery day she brought home a little feather instead of her pearl.

  The long loop of the chain grew shorter and shorter. The time came whenit was not a long loop at all, but fitted closely round Agatha's neckas the other loops did. By-and-by the time came when the chain wouldonly pass twice round her throat; then the time came when it would onlygo round her throat once; then it grew too short to reach round herthroat at all, and she was obliged to turn it into a bracelet. Then itbecame too short for her wrist, and she made it into a ring. And all thetime her store of feathers was growing larger and larger, till it seemedto her that there were enough to make at least ten nightingales; butthis was because she did not know how many feathers a nightingale likesto have. When there were only two pearls left, the Wise Man said toher--

  "When you bring me the last pearl you must bring me the feathers too;and after that you will be able to sing with a beautiful voice and tofly wherever you like."

  So when Agatha left the gloomy old castle for the last time she was notable to run through the wood, because she was carrying a big bag offeathers as well as the pearl.

  She was feeling very much excited when she gave the bag of feathers tothe Wise Man.

  He put the last pearl carefully away with the others; and then he tookthe bag of feathers and emptied it over Agatha's head. As he did so hesaid some of the strange long words that Wise Men use.

  And then----

  Agatha was there no longer. There was nothing to be seen of her except alittle heap of yellow curls, which the Wise Man kept to give to the nextperson who asked him for gold.

  But out of the cave there flew a happy bird. It flew far, far up intothe sky, singing with a beautiful voice. It flew higher up into the skythan any nightingale ever flew.

  For the Wise Man had done more than he had promised. The bird'sbeautiful voice was not the voice of the nightingale, the Bird ofShadows; but the voice of the lark, the Sun-Bird, who is never sad.