



Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Emmy and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was made using scans of public domain works in the
International Children's Digital Library.)








[Illustration: _The Fairy Violet's introduction to the Fire-King._]




  HOW THE FAIRY VIOLET
     LOST AND WON
      HER WINGS.

BY MARIANNE L. B. KER.

_Author of "Eva's Victory," "Sybil Grey," &c._

ILLUSTRATED BY J. A. MARTIN.

[Illustration]

          LONDON:
          GRIFFITH AND FARRAN, ST. PAUL'S CHURCH YARD.

          1872.




HOW THE FAIRY VIOLET

LOST AND WON HER WINGS.


The Fairy Violet lived in the heart of a beautiful forest, where,
through the glad spring months, the sun shone softly, and the bright
flowers bloomed, and now and then the gentle rain fell in silver drops
that made every green thing on which they rested fresher and more
beautiful still. At the foot of a stately oak nestled a clump of
violets, and it was there the wee fairy made her home. She wore a robe
of deep violet, and her wings, which were of the most delicate gauze,
glistened like dew-drops in the sun. All day long she was busy at work
tending her flowers, bathing them in the fresh morning dew, painting
them anew with her delicate fairy brush, or loosening the clay when it
pressed too heavily upon their fragile roots; and at night she joined
the elves in their merry dance upon the greensward. She was not alone in
the great forest; near her were many of her sister fairies, all old
friends and playmates. There was the Fairy Primrose in a gown of pale
yellow, and Cowslip, who wore a robe of the same colour, but of a deeper
shade. There was the graceful Bluebell, and the wild Anemone, the
delicate Woodsorrel, and the Yellow Kingcup. The Fairy Bluebell wore a
robe the colour of the sky on a calm summer's day, Anemone and
Woodsorrel were clad in pure white, while Kingcup wore a gown of bright
amber. One day, as the Fairy Violet was resting from the noonday heat on
the open leaves of her favourite flower, a noisy troop of boys, just set
free from school, came dashing at full speed through the forest. "Hallo!
there is a nest in that tree," cried one, and he trod ruthlessly on the
violets as he sprang up the trunk of the ancient oak. The Fairy Violet
was thrown to the ground, with a shock that left her for a time stunned
and motionless. When she recovered, the boys were gone, and the flower
in which she had been resting lay crushed and dying on the ground.
Filled with tender pity at the sight, Fairy Violet hastened to tend her
wounded charge, taking no thought for her own injuries. "Dear Violet, be
comforted," she whispered softly, as she raised the drooping flower from
the ground; "I will try to make you well." Then she took her fairy
goblet and fetched a few drops of dew from a shady place which the sun
had not yet reached, to revive the fainting flower, and bound up the
broken stem with a single thread of her golden hair. But it was all in
vain, and the fairy, after wrapping an acorn in soft moss, and placing
it for a pillow beneath the head of the fast fading Violet, left it to
try her skill on the other flowers. A faint fragrance from the dying
flower thanked her, as she turned sadly away to pursue her labour of
love. It was not till she had raised and comforted all the drooping
flowers and bound up their wounds, that the Fairy Violet thought of
herself. Then she discovered that her delicate gossamer wings were
gone! Evidently they had been caught on a crooked stick as she fell to
the ground and torn violently off, for there the remnants now hung,
shrivelled and useless, flapping in the breeze. At this sight the
hapless fairy threw herself by the side of the now withered Violet, and
wept bitterly. When spring and the spring flowers were gone, and their
work was ended, Violet and her sister fairies had been wont to spread
their wings and fly back to fairy-land, to report to the Queen what they
had done, and to receive from her reward or blame, according as they had
performed their task well or ill. Now this happy prospect was over for
poor Violet. "I shall never see fairy-land again!" she murmured, and
wept anew at the thought.

The violets whom she had tended so lovingly were very sorry for her
grief, and shook their heads gently in the breeze, till their fragrance
filled the air, and stole softly round the weeping fairy. But though
they comforted, they could not help her. Presently she rose, and glided
swiftly through the tall grass, till she reached the flower where the
blue robed fairy was resting after her day's work.

"Oh, sister Blue Bell," she cried, "I have lost my wings! Where shall I
get another pair, that I may fly back to fairy-land with you and my
sisters when our work is done?" Then Bluebell shook her head
sorrowfully, till all her sweet bells chimed--"I am sorry! I am sorry!"
but she could not help her sister Violet.

"Perhaps Cowslip will know," she suggested.

But Cowslip bade her try what Woodsorrel would say, and Woodsorrel
thought perhaps Kingcup might know, so Violet went about from one to
another, till she was ready to cry again with vexation.

Then all the fairies gathered round her and tried to comfort her.

"Let us ask the owl that sits in the hollow oak," said the gentle
Anenome, gliding to Violet's side; "he must be very wise, for he never
smiles, and seldom speaks more than three words at a time."

So that night, when the moon lit her silver lamp in the sky, instead of
dancing, as was their wont, with the elves upon the greensward, they all
repaired to the hollow oak to seek an audience of the owl. They had to
repeat their errand two or three times before he understood it, for the
owl was as slow of understanding as he was of speech, and then, having
nodded his head solemnly for five minutes, and winked and blinked for
quite ten, he said solemnly:--

"Try the King of the Fire Spirits!"

After which he relapsed into silence, and obstinately refused to say any
more. Then the Fairy Violet bade farewell to all her friends, and set
out on her journey to the King of the Fire Spirits. She had a long way
to go, for the Fire-King held his court in the very centre of the earth,
and she might have lost herself in the dark passages had not the
glowworm lent her his lamp. She had saved him once when a hungry bird
would have carried him off in her beak, and from that time the glowworm
had loved the gentle fairy, and always burned brightest when she was by.

The Fairy Violet travelled very quickly, scarcely touching her feet to
the ground, but passing onward with a swift gliding motion that was very
beautiful; still it was three days and three nights before she reached
the kingdom of the Fire Spirits, for she had four thousand miles to go.

Had she not been a fairy, she must have been scorched to death as she
entered the Fire-King's domain, for the streets were paved with molten
iron, and flames kept bursting forth in all directions, in which she
could perceive strange wild figures, some leaping to and fro in mad
fantastic glee, playing at ball with lumps of burning coal; others
manufacturing volcanic fire in their monstrous furnaces.

They ceased their employment when they saw Violet, and came and knelt
before her in wondering admiration. She looked so beautiful as she came
floating towards them in her soft violet robe, with her fair hair
rippling in golden waves to her very feet, that they thought she must be
an angel who had strayed down from among the bright stars to their
gloomy dwelling-place, for they had never seen a fairy before.

They were moved with compassion when they heard her sad tale, and at
once led her before their King, who was seated on a throne of molten
gold, with red and yellow flames curling up and arching over him for a
canopy, and a crown of fire on his head. He looked rather fierce, but
received Violet very graciously, and at once ordered his head blacksmith
to make the little fairy a new pair of wings. Violet was a little
startled when she found that these were made of fire, and were to be
fastened on her shoulders with bands of liquid gold, but the King
assured her that they were the very best of their kind.

"There is nothing so powerful as fire," he cried, with a fierce exultant
laugh; waving his fiery sceptre in the burning atmosphere so wildly,
that though Violet thought he had been very kind to her, and bade him a
very grateful farewell, she was yet not at all sorry to be safely out of
his domains.

How fresh and green the earth looked as she emerged from the dark
caverns that led to the Fire-King's palace, and rested her hot feet on
the cool grass! But when eager to tell her friends of her success, she
began to try the Fire-King's present, a general cry of dismay and terror
broke forth.

"Sister Violet, you are killing our flowers," cried the fairies,
reproachfully.

"Oh, I am burning! I am burning!" shrieked the grass.

"Cruel fairy! you have killed us!" murmured the insects, as, with
scorched wings, they fell helpless to the ground.

"Alas!" said Violet weeping, "I am bringing death and destruction
wherever I go. I will fly back to fairy-land before I work more
mischief."

But the birds looked down from their nests wild with terror at the
thought.

"You will kill us if you fly up here with your burning wings," they
chirped piteously. "You will scorch us to death," shouted the trees,
tossing their heads angrily in the breeze.

"Ah, gentle fairy, have pity on us!" cooed the dove; "did I not comfort
you when your pet violet died?"

"Have I not sung to you at night when you were weary with dancing?"
warbled the nightingale.

"Have we not sheltered you from the fierce heat of the sun, and the
beating of the pitiless rain?" rustled the trees, indignantly.

"Heartless!" muttered the wind, rushing rudely past her; "to injure
those who love you so much."

"I shall never see fairy-land again!" murmured Violet. But she had too
gentle a heart to persist, so she sadly retraced her steps, and bade the
Fire-King take back his fatal gift.

That evening, she and her sister fairies went to the owl and told him of
the ill success of her mission. The owl heard her to the end with great
gravity, and then said, severely: "Of course! Anyone with any sense
would have known that wings forged by the Fire Spirits _must_ burn
everything they touched."

Violet would have liked to remind him that it was _he_ who bade her go
to the King of the Fire Spirits, but he looked so very severe, as he sat
blinking solemnly in the moonlight, that she was afraid, and only said,
humbly--

"Please what shall I do now?"

"Go to the King of the Snow Spirits, of course!" said the owl, rather
crossly, for he wanted to go to sleep; "if fire is too hot, you had
better try snow."

"Alas! what shall I do?" said Violet, very sadly. "The Snow-King lives
far off by the North Pole, and I have no wings to bear me to him over
the seas."

Then a gentle fluttering was heard in the trees, and a sea-bird alighted
at Violet's feet.

"Beautiful fairy," he sang, softly, "do you not remember now, three
springs ago, when the trees were clothing themselves anew in their green
raiment, and the flowers were springing up among the fresh grass, you
bound up my leg, which the hunter had wounded with his cruel gun; and
fed me daily with luscious fruits, and gave me to drink of sparkling dew
till I recovered? I vowed then that I would one day repay you, and now
my chance has come. Mount on my back, sweet Violet, and I will carry you
to the Snow-King."

Then Violet thanked him joyfully, and seated herself on his back; and
the sea-bird flew away with her far over the hills and vales, and
pleasant fields, and beyond the great ocean till he reached the palace
of the Snow-King.

The Palace was built of blocks of ice, filled in with snow, and arched
over with a graceful snowdrift for a roof; while lofty colonnades of
snow, supported by pillars of ice, led the way to the audience chamber,
which glistened with diamonds and crystals of the most sparkling
brilliancy. The Snow-King wore on his head a crown of ice-diamonds,
while from his shoulders hung gracefully a pure white cloak, fringed
with glittering icicles and fastened at the neck with a crystal brooch.

Violet shivered a little as she entered this coldly beautiful palace,
for she was accustomed to bask all day long in the warm sunshine, and
had never trod on anything colder than the soft grass; but she quickly
recovered herself, and gliding with a swift graceful movement to the
foot of the Snow-King's throne, she bent on one knee before him, and
told him for what she had come.

Then the Snow-King looked kindly upon the little fairy, and raised her
gently with his ice-cold hands.

"Beautiful fairy," he said, "you are the first of your race who ever
visited my kingdom, and never have I seen aught so radiantly lovely
before. Your wish is granted, I only would it were twice as costly;"
and, turning to the snow-spirits, who were gathering lovingly round the
bright being who had ventured so boldly into their ice-bound regions,
he bade them mould wings of the purest and most delicate snow for their
fairy visitant. Then the King lay back on his throne, and looked at the
sweet modest face of the little fairy, and at her graceful form, with
the bright hair rippling in sunny waves over the violet robe, till,
moved by some sudden impulse, he came and knelt down at Violet's feet.

"Sweet fairy," he said, as Violet turned her wondering eyes upon him, "I
have long ruled as monarch among my Snow-Spirits, and I have been very
proud of the cold splendour of my palace, with its glittering crystals
and pillars of ice, and I have laughed when the Fire-King has taunted me
from afar with its lack of warmth and colour, for I cared not for
either; but now it seems to me that the bright gleam of your golden
hair, and the warm glow of your violet robe, are far more beautiful than
my ice-diamonds and sparkling crystals, and that my palace will be very
bleak and desolate when you have gone. Stay with us, gentle fairy, and
be my queen!"

Then all the Snow-Spirits gathered eagerly round Violet, and cried,
"Stay with us, and be our Queen!"

Violet shivered as their icy-breath blew upon her, and her hand grew
cold in the Snow-King's frozen clasp; but she turned to him, and said,
very gently, for she was sorry to give him pain, "I cannot leave my
beautiful fairy-land to become your Queen. I should pine away in your
beautiful ice-palace, for I love the warm sunshine and the bright
flowers, and the soft breath of balmy spring, and this cold air would
kill me. So do not ask me again, noble King, for I cannot say yes, and
it grieves me to say no."

Then the Snow-King urged her no more, but went back to his throne, and
watched her with such sad, wistful eyes, that Violet's heart ached, and
she was glad when they brought her the wings that she might fly away.

They were very beautiful, made of soft feathery snow, and fastened to
her shoulders with crystal buckles.

Violet knelt down and kissed the King's hand, thanking him gratefully
for his kindness, and praying him to forgive her any pain she had caused
him; and then flew away side by side with her faithful bird. The
Snow-King watched her till the bright sheen of her hair, and the soft
flutter of her wings could no longer be seen, and then turned back, sad
and lonely, to his palace.

But Violet was very happy; "I shall see fairy-land again; bright,
beautiful fairy-land!" she sang softly to herself over and over.

But when the frozen seas were past, and she was hovering once more above
the land, the sun shone full upon her, the snow-wings melted away, and
she fell helplessly to the ground.

"Dear Violet, are you hurt?" asked the Fairy Anenome, by whose side she
had fallen. But Violet could not speak. She hid her face in Anenome's
white robe, and wept bitterly.

"Dear sister Violet," said Anenome, winding her arms lovingly round the
weeping fairy, "be comforted. This night we will go together and seek an
audience of the Owl. Perhaps he will give us wiser counsel this time."

"The Owl only mocks me," said Violet; "I will not ask counsel from him
again."

Then Anenome was silent, for she knew not what else to advise, and only
tried to show her pity by tender words and caresses. But Fairy Kingcup
lifted up her bright face, and said, cheerily:--

"Why not try the Wizard of the Black Rock? He lives a long way off, but
he is the wisest magician that ever lived; and if any one can help our
sister Violet, it is he."

Violet shook her head sorrowfully.

"I do not know the way," she said.

"I will lead you," hummed a bee, from the deep cup of a cowslip.

"And I will sing you my merriest songs to cheer you by the way," warbled
a thrush, circling lovingly round her head.

"And I," cried the glowworm, "will light you at night with my golden
lamp."

"We all love you, Fairy Violet, because you are so gentle and good,"
they sang in chorus; and Violet lifted her head, comforted, and smiled a
sweet, joyous smile, as she bade farewell to her sister fairies.

It was a long journey that she undertook, for the Wizard of the Black
Rock lived quite at the other end of the earth.

Sometimes a benighted traveller, hurrying homewards, fancied he saw a
golden light flash like lightning past his dazzled eyes, or heard a
warbling of sweet music, delighting for an instant his bewildered ears;
but light and music were gone in a moment, and he never guessed that it
was the Fairy Violet who had passed him as she glided onward with her
three faithful attendants to seek the Wizard of the Black Rock.

At length they reached the great Black Rock, which rose up, grim and
forbidding, from a wide, desolate plain. The bee sank down humming
cheerfully, at the base, the thrush perched himself on a projecting
ridge, and the glowworm hid himself behind a tuft of withered grass.

Violet advanced boldly to the small black door, studded with iron nails,
which was standing open, guarded only by a black dwarf of preternatural
ugliness. He turned as the beautiful fairy came floating towards him,
and led the way silently through dark long passages, and up narrow
winding stairs to his master's chamber. It was a small dark room,
lighted only by a silver lamp of great brilliancy, which stood on a
table by the fire-place, where, though the month was May, and the
weather bright and sunny, there burned a dim, smouldering fire. The
Wizard, whose silvery locks contrasted strangely with the surrounding
gloom, bent over a book; its jewelled clasps were rusted with age, each
page was enriched with coloured tracery. He was very old. More than a
hundred years had elapsed since it was first rumoured that a famous
magician had taken up his abode in the Black Rock, and all that time he
had spent in studying the great black book of magic spells that lay open
before him. No wonder he was wise and learned!

The dwarf shut the door with a sullen resentful clang, and Violet was
left alone with the great magician.

She glided to his side, and knelt down meekly before him.

But the Wizard, deep in his abstruse studies, did not hear her; and
Violet felt a sensation of awe creeping over her as she noted his
abstracted gaze, and looked on the high, arched forehead wrinkled with
centuries of years and study. Suddenly the magician turned, muttering
some strange words in an unknown tongue, and, as he did so, his eyes
fell upon Violet.

[Illustration: _The Fairy Violet visits the Magician._]

A remembrance of some by-gone spell of grace and beauty seemed to stir
the Wizard as he looked upon the bright-haired fairy, to whose upturned
face the light of the silver lamp had lent a fairer radiance, for his
deep voice softened as he spoke to her, and he laid his hand gently on
her head while she told her story.

When she had finished, he remained musing for some time in silence.

"I know no spells that will serve where the Spirits of Snow and of Fire
have failed," he said at length, with unwonted gentleness. "No one can
help thee here but thine own loving heart. Kind words, gentle deeds,
faithful service, patient waiting--from these alone can be wrought the
wings, which will be slight enough for thy delicate frame to bear, and
yet powerful enough to withstand every trial. Go forth then, gentle
fairy, to thy daily tasks, and wait patiently till the great Mother
Nature herself give thee thy reward."

"Thanks, kind magician," said Violet, with a bright smile; "you have
given me a pleasant task to do."

Then kissing gratefully his withered hand, she went on her way, and the
aged Magician thought his silver lamp burned dimly, and his cell grew
dark when she had left.

"Could not the great wizard help you?" cried her three friends,
sorrowfully, as, gliding past the black dwarf that guarded the entrance,
she stepped out into the open air.

"Could he not help you?" echoed her sister fairies, when she re-entered
once more the old forest.

"Alas! is there no help for you, sweet Violet?" wept the wind, wandering
in and out among the lofty trees, rocking and swaying them like slender
bulrushes in his fierce sorrow.

But to each and all Violet replied only by a glad quiet smile.

"Patience!" she said, gently; "Mother Nature will help me in her own
time."

So she returned to her work among the violets; and when they had all
died, and the spring had gone, and her sister fairies flew away to
fairy-land, she still smiled, though a little sadly, and bade them
farewell without a shade of discontent in her brave, gentle voice.

"Now, I must find some work," she said to herself, when her wistful eyes
could no longer discern the flutter of their wings in the azure sky.

And she soon found plenty to do.

Now it was binding up the wound of some stricken bird, or raising some
crushed flower, and sprinkling its drooping leaves with cooling dew, and
now it was closing the eyelids of a tired child who had thrown himself
down to rest beneath the forest shade, and singing softly in his ear a
fairy lullaby, till he fell asleep. Sometimes she would perch herself on
the shoulder of some sleeping wayfarer by the roadside, and whisper in
his ear sweet and tender words that made him dream of his home, and of
the mother sleeping so peacefully in the churchyard far away, till he
started from his sleep and went on his way with a touched and softened
heart. Every day Fairy Violet found some kindly deed to do, and every
day Mother Nature, looking lovingly on her child, saw the time was
drawing nearer when she should receive her reward.

One day as she was wandering through one of the by-streets of a crowded
city, she was attracted by a plaintive voice that proceeded from one of
the low-roofed, badly built houses.

"Put the geranium where I can see it, mother," the voice was saying, "I
love to lie back and watch it."

A woman came forward at these words and altered the position of the
plant, which Fairy Violet had already noticed as being rather faded, and
in want of her skill to brighten the colours.

"It is very washy-like," she said regretfully, "I doubt this stuffy air
is killing it."

"Will it live as long as I shall?" asked the plaintive voice.

There was no answer, but Violet saw that the mother's hands shook as
they busied themselves with the flower.

"I hope it will," the voice continued, with a sort of wistful eagerness,
"for it is such a pleasure to me to watch it. It seems to comfort me,
when the pain is very bad, and I lie awake through the long weary night,
to look at it and wonder what the