TWO FAIRY SPONGES 37 
wonder as did this magic touch of the little black 
fly upon the oak leaf. Had I chanced to visit 
the spot a few weeks later, what a beautiful red- 
cheeked apple could I have plucked from that 
hemstitched leaf ! 
This was but one of a veritable swarm of mis- 
chief - making midges everywhere flitting among 
the trees ; and while they are quite as various in 
their shapes as the traditional forms of fairies 
the ouphes and imps, the gnomes and elves of 
quaintest mien, as well as the dainty fays and 
sylphs and sprites there is one feature common 
to them all which annihilates the ideal of all 
the pictorial authorities on fairydom. Neither 
Grimm, nor Laboulaye, nor any of the masters of 
fairy - lore, seems to have discovered that a fairy 
has no right to those butterfly wings which the 
pages of books show us. Those of the real fairy 
are quite different, being narrow and glassy, and 
bear the magician's peculiar sign in their criss- 
cross veins. 
What a world of mischief is going on here in 
the fields ! Here is one of the witching sprites 
among the drooping blossoms of the oak. " You 
would fain be an acorn," she says, as she pierces 
the tender blossoms with her wand, " but I charge 
thee bring forth a string of currants ;" and imme- 
diately the blossoms begin to obey the behest, 
and erelong a mimic string of currants droops 
