338 POPULAR TALES OF FLOWERS 
to find it. At last they came to say that no one could 
ever get it. It seems almost sad, then, to find out that 
at last the bag was certainly found by a miserly old man. 
This old man was selfish. He was cross. He was un- 
pleasant, and likewise unhappy. 
When he found the gold, he wished no one to know of 
it. He feared that someone might need some of his pre- 
cious gold. So he decided to hide his wealth in the earth. 
So one dark night, when black clouds scurried across the 
sky, and not a star was in sight, the old miser went to 
bury his gold. He slung the big bag over his shoulder 
and crept along the dark meadow where the grass was 
thick and tall. It was, in fact, the self-same meadow in 
which the fairies danced. But this the old man did not 
know. Now, the fairies are always good and wise and 
loving. They do not like selfishness, and they love to 
do kindnesses for others. But fairies are also sometimes 
full of mischief. Listen, and I will tell you what one 
fairy did ! As the old man crept slily along, a fairy spied 
him. With a laugh she ripped a hole in the bag with a 
sharp grass-blade. Of this the old man knew nothing. 
One by one the gold pieces slipped down among the 
grasses. Little by little the bag grew lighter; but the old 
man did not notice, so eager was he to reach the wood 
before any needy one saw him. His bag was empty before 
he reached the wood ; but all amid the grasses shone the 
gold which he had dropped. 
“Let us put it on stems, that all m.ay see,’' said the 
fairies. “ Let the fairy gold be free alike to rich and 
poor!” 
So all night long the fairies worked. When morning 
came the sun shone down on the meadow, which was 
bright with the gold, each piece set on a sturdy stem of 
its own. 
“You may call them buttercups if you wish,” laughed 
the mischievous fairy ; “ but they are fairy gold just the 
same I” 
