The Taylor Twins at the Fairy Flower Dance
by Maxine V. Griswold
Peter and Jane Taylor were just
six years old. They were twins and they were
always together, for when they were apart they were both
very lonely and unhappy.
The Taylors lived in a very
lonely house far out in the country where there were
green meadows to play in during summer and nice hills to
slide on when there was snow in the
winter. In the spring when the refreshing rains came to
wash the earth and all the trees and living
things on it, the tiny new flowers began to push out of
the earth and spring up here and there.
Then the Taylor twins would gather great bunches of them
and take them to the house. The
servant would place them in vases and the fragrance of
them would fill the house and make
everyone happy. In the spring there were wild trilliums
which really were rather like Easter
lilies. Later there were dainty yellow johnny-jump-ups
and shy purple violets.
One day in early spring, Peter
and Jane went to the woods nearby to gather
flowers. The children sat down together for a while to
watch some bluebirds building a nest.
Suddenly Jane nudged Peter ever so gently. "Do you hear
that, Peter?" she whispered.
The children both listened
intently. "I think it's a tiny bell tinkling," Peter
whispered back.
The tinkling sound grew louder,
and suddenly a very tiny fairy maiden stood
before them. She bowed graciously and came closer. "I am
queen of the flowers," she said in a
wee voice, "and these little fairies are the flower
people."
And surely enough there were tiny
little people with flower faces. They were the
trilliums, the johnny-jump-ups, the violets, and many,
many others.
"If you will promise never to
pick the lovely flowers until they are full grown and
never more than you need to make your world beautiful you
may come to our flower dance," the
flower queen told them.
Peter and Jane could scarcely
believe their eyes and ears. "Oh, we do promise!"
they both declared breathlessly.
"Very well," the little queen
said. "Tonight you must go to sleep as you always do,
and when you are in Slumberland, the flower people will
come for you." And when the children
had promised to do as they were told, the flower queen
and her people were gone in a flash.
That evening, soon after their
dinner, the Taylor twins were very sleepy and wanted
to go to bed at once. This greatly surprised Mrs.
Taylor, for usually the twins wanted to romp
and be told many stories before they would go to sleep.
After the lights were out, the
children both closed their eyes very tightly and soon
they were fast asleep. But no sooner were they in
Slumberland than the flower people appeared,
dainty flower maidens in frocks of lovely colors and tiny
flower men in suits of Lincoln green.
How merry and gay they were! They gathered in a circle
around the twins and carried them off to a
splendid green place where a laughing brooklet ran.
There, the twins saw, were many, many more
of the fairy flower people. Some were singing and some
were dancing. All were laughing and
happy. Presently the flower queen held up one tiny hand,
and all the little flower people were
silent. Then they came and gathered in a large circle
around the children and drew them toward
the brooklet's edge.
"Where are you taking us?" the
children asked.
"Fear nothing," the little
queen said. "The flower people love yon. They wish to
make you happy."
Soon the children were in a
little boat made of ferns. They were sailing down the
brooklet. How beautiful everything was! Now they were in
another land. The boat drifted to the
shore, and the flower people took them to a lovely chair
made of green, woodsy things. There
was music. The brooklet was singing a merry song; there
was a tinkling of many bluebells. Some
birds were whistling a gay tune.
Now, the daffodils were
together. Daintily they danced, and soon the violets and
Johnny-jump-ups had joined. All the flowers the children
had ever seen were there dancing. How
sweet and wild and free they were!
"How sad it is that children
sometimes destroy them," Jane thought. "They are so
lovely."
Many animals were quietly
watching the fairy flower dance, too. There were the
squirrels, the woodchucks, chipmunks, and many others.
When the dance was over, there
was a great feast. There were fruits and nuts and
delicious honey that the bees had brought, for they were
there, too.
Suddenly the flower queen
appeared before Peter and Jane. "It is late," she said in
her tiny voice. And you must return to your land. The
flower people will take you."
So the children boarded the fern
boat and went back to Slumberland after bidding
the queen, the flower people, and all the animals
goodbye. In the morning when the Taylor twins
awakened, Mrs. Taylor brought a basket of fresh flowers
to them.
"These were left on the
doorstep," she told them. "It's May Day. Perhaps one of
your little friends left them."
But Peter and Jane both knew
that the flower queen and her fairy flower people
had left them.
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