38 EYE SPY 
upon the stem. Upon another tender branch 
near by a jet-black, gauze -winged elf is casting a 
similar spell, which is this time followed by a tiny, 
downy, pink -cheeked peach. And here alights a 
tiny sprite, whose magic touch evokes even from 
the same leaf a cherry, or a coral bead, perhaps a 
huge green apple ! How many of us have seen 
the little elf that spends her life among the tan- 
gles of creeping cinque-foil, and decks its stems 
with those brilliant scarlet beads which we may 
always find upon them, looking verily like tempt- 
ing berries. 
We see here about us swarms of these busy 
elves in obedience to their own peculiar mischiev- 
ous promptings. What whispers this glittering 
midge to the oak twig here to which she clings 
so closely ? We may not guess ; but if we pass 
this way a month or so hence, what a beautiful 
response in the glistening, rosy -clouded sponge 
which encircles the stem ! " But this sponge is 
not pretty enough by half," exclaims a rival fairy. 
"Wait until you see what yonder sweetbrier rose 
will do for me? Hovering thither among its 
thorns, she imparts her spell, and, lo ! within a 
month the stem is clothed in emerald fringe, 
which grows apace, until it has become a dense 
pompon of deep crimson a sponge worthy the 
toilet of the fairy queen herself ! 
Who shall still say that the fairy is a myth ! 
