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 



