IN FANCY DRESS.

Te Aroha News, Volume VII, Issue 456, 22 March 1890, Page 4

IN FANCY DRESS.

A FAIRY TALE. CHAPTER I.

LUFF had never had such an evening before in her ten years’ life. It was perfectly delightful to be a fairy. Of course it was oidy a fancy dress ball for children ; still Fluff' felt just like a fairy, she was so happy ; and

every one thought she looked like one too. White gauze and silver, with a sparkling circlets on her head and a bright wand in her hand, and butterfly wings from her shoulders; a dimpled face, and laughing eyes and curling hair; a pair of silver slippers dancing iightly—this was Fluff. Blue-coat School boys were at that party, and little lawyers in wig and gown, and funny Chinamen, and merry milkmaids, and princesses with silken trains, and small ladies of long ago, done up for one night with long dresses and powdered hair. But the happiest of all was Fluff. ‘ Oh ! if I could only be a fairy always !’ she said and sighed, for it was nearly five o’clock, and all the fun would end at twelve with ‘ Sir Roger de Coverley.’ ‘ Are you engaged for the country dance, Miss Enderby ?’ Miss 3 Enderby was the ten-years-old fairy ; but a young gentleman (of nine or so) was speaking to her for the first time in his life, and as Fluff had specially learned to dance in order to come to this party, and as she had a fancy dress of the most bewitching description, she was not a bit surprised at the respect with which the partners treated her. This was a very desirable partner for the last dance. He was dressed as a fairy too, but a boy fairy, of course —all in grass-green, with the edgesot gold linings turning out, and he had red berries on his jacket instead of buttons, and his cap, which he held in his goldgloved hand, was pointed and made of withered leaves.

They danced together. They kept time opposite each other, while the others crossed and re-crossed with this hand and that, and turned and bowed, and shipped back to their places. The Chinese lanterns and the holly and mistletoe were overhead, and the room was like a living picture-book, full of music and laughter, tco, and the sliding sound of little feet.

When Fluff'and her partner were running under the arch of hands and down the middle, he bent towards the little ear among the curls, and he whispered, 1 1 am a real one. ’ When they were opposite each other, in their places again, and the music was drumming out the merry old tune, Fluff said, with a little puckered brow, and the human curiositv of ten ‘ What did you say? You are a real what ?’ The partner made no answer, but he shut his eyes and screwed his lips up tight. He was a queer boy. But when they met and danced down the middle again, he bent towards the little ear among the curls arid made the startling revelation—- ‘ Come along ! I am a real fairy !’ A third time they met, and passed under the joined hands. On they went; he had her fast; through the conservatory, out by the French window, down the garden steps in the moonlight with one long, delicious floating jump, and there they were by the holly Inedge together. Nobody missed them, for the music and dancing sounned as lively as ever. ‘ Come along,' said the little lad in green, you are a fairy now.’ There was a dim light under the laurel bed. A tunnel, never seen before, led gently down into the ground, and the soft glow of light came from the far end of it. Fluff hesitated —

‘Won’t they miss me at home? They will be sorry. I wouldn’t be a fairy, if they were sorrv.’ ‘ Oh, no,’ said the merry little man, ‘ we have provided for that. I promise you they will never miss you.’ So they rau down the tunnel together, hand in hand; and the earth closed up after them ; and Fluff' was gone to the fairies. CHAPTER 11. Fluff found herself in a sort of half-way house to Fairyland. The room was lighted by real fairy lamps ; each was a light burning softly in the middle of a pink or white transparent flower; crooked boughs of lopped trees formed the seat? ; the walls were lined with moss and with petals of every colour. ‘ How pretty !’ said the new fairy. ‘ Yes,’ said a voice, ‘ it is lined with moss and flowers, just as the birds’ nests are lined with feathers.’ ‘ When people throw away lovely flowers before they are withered, we save up the poor flowers and bring them home, and here their petals will never fade.’ Then Fluff perceived that quaint little men, clad in all shades of green, were perched about on that queer furniture—the crooked boughs. The lamps shone down on their forest suits and sparkling eyes. Her partner introduced them all as Sir Grassolade, Sir Bronze, Sir Sage, Sir Bottlegreen, and even Sir Verdigris, and said that he himself was Redberry. And then they all said together : ‘ Thank you, Sir Redberry. Welcome, little Silvershoes.’

So Flufl sat down on a branch that was just at a nice height for a seat by. the mossy wall. She crossed Iter little silver shoes. Her white dress shone in the soft light, and her sparkling belt was glittering, and so was the circlet in her hair, and her silver wand was in her hand, with one end resting on the ground. There was a strange new feeling of life in her butterfly wings, as if she could move them. ‘ And why did you want to be a fairy ? Tell us, Silvershoes,’ said the little green men, gathering round to admire her, and holding in their hands their pointed caps of red and brown leaves.

They all had questions to ask, and before they were satisfied they had got to know all about Fluff and her wishes, and her troubles.

The information they got was something like this : Fluff bad wished to be a fairy always because when she wore her fancy dress at the party, twelve o’clock and the end came all too soon, and it seemed so sad to think of taking off her pretty dress and being only herself again. Her objections to home life were made with a sad little face, and lips inclined to pout at the recollection. There was a baby brother ; one couldn’t make a comfortable noise for whole hours in the day, because Toddles was having his sleep ; and when he was not asleep, he had a habit of laying hold of her things with his sticky fingers, and when once he got hold of a thing, nurse always said she was to give it to ‘ poor baby and poor baby was nob in the least to .be pitied, because he got everything nice, and she really thought he enjoyed himself when he took it into his head to cry. Another trouble at home was the getting up in the morning. As soon as one

found out that one was asleep and liked it, that very minute it was sure to be time to get up. Lessons were another grievance ; so was thick bread-and-butter. Pinafores were the bane of life; before they dressed her for the party, she actually had worn a pinafore all day. Her doll was old, so she did not care for it any more. Why, even the black cat had behaved badly to her. Smut grew up, instead of remaining a kitten. On the other hand, Fluffs ideas of Fairyland were exalted. There were no babies to cry, and pull at things, or go to sleep in the middle of the day, and hush everybody up. There were no lessons. There were white gauze and silver for ever, instead of a house-frock and a pinafore. There were flowers and shells, or perhaps jewels and gold to play with, instead of the shabby old doll. No doubt cats in Fairyland remained kittens for ever, and there was always cake for tea. All the little green men shook their heads. ‘ Oh, no, we don’t have any tea. We are never hungry.’ ‘ Ah !’ said Fluff, with a sigh of relief, ‘then there can’t be thick bread-and-butter.’

‘We eat honey off flower-leaf plates,’ said Sir Verdigris, * just as a matter of form. And we drink dew oat of acorn cups. That is, when we have supper on the grass in a fairy ring. But we no more need food than we need sleep.’ Fluff' gave a little shriek of laughter and delight. ‘Oh ! then there won’t be the bother of getting up any more, if ono doesn’t go to bed.’ ‘ We sometimes lie down to rest—just as a formality,’ said Sir Verdigris, with a wave of his hand. ‘ I collect thistledown for my bed. My friend Sir Redberry there collects the dead butterflies to make his (did you never wonder where the dead butterflies go to? Well, now you know). Then, as for our Queen. I know a bank whereon the wild thyme grows, where oxlip and the nodding violet blows; and there she sleeps. But it is all a matter of fo: m. We keep always fresh and bright, just as our clothes keep always new.' ‘ Oh, how lovely 1’ cried Fluff—another little laughing shout of delight, ‘II the clothes keep new here, there can't be any more pinafores.’ Yes, it was the grandest thing in the world to be a fairy. She would share their moonlight life of work and play for evermore, dance with the flying circle of sprites, sit supping with a sort of aoll’s-houso pre tence of supper in the mushroom rings, float in the sun almost invisible like a gossamer thread, save flies from spiders or fish them out of dairy cream, open and close the meadow flowers and talk to fieldmice and snails, and make love to yellowbelted bees for a sip of honey. And the greatest charm of all to Fluff was that she would be free—no lessons, no rules, no wishing for things she could not buy. She would have what she liked, and do what she liked, and fly the whole world over, now that she was a fairy. ‘ Come, let us begin,’ said little Sir Redberry, taking her hand, and she scampered with him down a mossy passage, and out into the broad, bright moonlight, wonderful moonlight, clearer than was ever seen through mortal eyes. It reminded Fluff'of the pantomime last Christmas, but there was no limit of the stage here. The whole world seemed to have become one transformation scene. To the bewildered eyes of the new fairy, Silvershoes, the forest trees were of gold and green, autumn bronze, and the red of seaweed ; , the grass was gemmed with glow-worms, and the great fungi of orange and yellow and scarlet brought faintly to her mind another transformation scene she had witnessed, called the fairy dell. It opened wider and wider to a lake all glorified in the moonlight, and studded with closed water-lilies and their great round silent leaves. Then came a pearly boat shaped like a nautilus shell, with many wings in it, and flowercrowned heads, for the nautilus boat was rowed by white-robed fairies with gilded oars. And out of this boat stepped the Fairy Queen, with wings of rainbow hue, and all in the finest cloth of gold, and the brain her little pages bore was edged with lioßt, as it her court dress was edged with diamonds. Fluff was glad to see that this Queen did wear her crown ; for it had been a sad disappointment long ago when first she heard that Queens in that other world only wore bonnets when they went out, and did nob ever wear their crowns all day and bake them off to go to bed, as the history Queens were supposed to do. Well, the Fairy Queen beckoned to Fluff with her sceptre, and Fluff ran forward, and suddenly her feet left the ground and her butterfly wings wafted her to the Queen’s feet. Talk of riding, or skating, or waltzing, why there was no movement in the old life so enchanting as that first flight, up and along over the glow-worms and the grass till thesilver shoes touched the ground again on the shore close to the dazzling Queen. The Queen fell in love with Fluff at first sight, touched the new fairy’s wand to give it magic power, and told her she was now adopted as her own daughter, the Princess Silvershoe. Fluff shrank back; her heart was troubled at the word ; it brought her a sense of reproach, a tender, dim remembrance of dearer homelier faces, somewhere else. She did nob want to be a Princess ; she did nob wish to be the child oven of the fairy Queen in all her dory. She belonged toothers far away and she would not be faithless to them. No ; she was their child still. The Queen saw the struggle in her heart, the shrinking of the new fairy, the blush on the cheek, the bears gathering in her eyes.

* Let her drink of the water of the lake,’ said the Queen, ‘ and forget the past for ever. Then she will stay with us.’ ‘ But I don’t want to forget them,’ sighed Fluff, putting away from her the shell full of water that Redberry held in his hand.

‘ Don’t force her,’ said the Fairy Queen. ‘ But set her some work to do, and try her. Take Silvershoes with you bo distribute the dreams.’

CHAPTER 111

Now Sir Redberry had only seen Fluff at the party, and, with all his fairy wit, he did nob know where she lived. He was in a hurry, for there are a vast number of children to get dreams every night, and the fairies have to fly about as fast as they can, and sometimes they mix the dreams up very queerly. ‘ Go in there,’ said Redberry, when they were both together on the window sill. ‘ There are the dreams for the two children. I am flying round the corner with the dragon dream for that greedy boy who carried mince-pies to bed.’ Fluff, as easily as possible, slipped in through a crack in the window pane ; it was rather like the crack her elbow had made in a window one day, when somebody wanted her old doll, and she snatched it back. She was afraid now she had been selfish towards that poor little ‘ somebody’; thei'e was a dull sense of loneliness, and yet she could not remember clearly who wa3 the little ‘ somebody’ that she felt so sorry about now. Ah! here he was. It was Toddles. This, most decidedly, was fair-haired, fatfaced little Toddles, with soft closed eyes and dimpled hands, lying in his own cot in the corner of the room. She whispered

into his ear a lovely dream about a lulling voice singing a slumber song, and in fancy he was to be rocked and sung to all the night. She would nob wake him ; and when she tried bo kiss him a tear dropped too soon, even from her fairy eyes, and he stirred with a little querulous cry and she had to steal away even without a kiss. She went into the next room. It had a very familiar air—that lovely little white nest. The moonlight w r as clear, and there was a soft red glow from the fite in the larger nursery that she had left. The black cat, with an emerald shine in its eyes, catne softly after her from the fireside. Her heart smote her—even her fairy heart. Ah ! how unkind she had been to care for the poor black cat only when it was a kitten, and then to forget her old friend ! And there was the doll, on the table in the window, and her old reading - book spread open, and a pinafore cast by after the day. All these things that she had despised looked sad to her now. She began to remember more clearly at the sight of the forsaken place, and all that had once belonged to her. Her hearr, ached ; there seemed to be something dearer than all, even dearer than the baby brother. Bub she could not remember yet.

Here was the other child to whom she was to whisper a dream. Why, the child was lying in her own bed. With a wave of her wand, she made a little light, soft, enough not to wake the sleeping eyes, and there she saw, in her own place, the image of herself.

Ah ! this is how the fairies had provided that she should nob be missed at home. They had pub someone else instead of tier—pet haps a fairy that wished to be a child. And what was this ? From the rail of the bed hung a stocking, filled with pretty toys, and a baby sock hung near it, bulging with sweets and a coloured ball. Yes, Santa Claus always let her find Toddles’ little sock of presents for him to give her the pleasure of showing them in the morning. And well she knew who was Santa Claus at home —father and mother.

That thought broke down the white and silver fairy. She ran back intc the nursery, and sat down sobbing. Oh ! it was heart-breaking to 10-e her father and mother, and Toddle* and home, and to be ‘ only a fairy.’ Why, tomorrow father’s kiss would be given to that other child, that fafiy changeling that had never been his own. To-morrow—and here the white and silver fairy almost choked, and sobbed out loud ‘Oh ! I shall die if I can’t see mother’s face to-morrow. I don’t want to be a fairy any more. My heart. —my heart will break. ’

A little figure all in white came stealing from the inner room—

‘Oh ! it was true—not a dream,' said the strange child softly. • I dreamt- a fairy was sitting on our hearthrug crying, and here she is."

The broken hearted fairy sprang up with frantic speed, and waved her wand. ‘You be Silvershoes—this moment - and I’ll be only Fluff.’

Oh, what a relief! She had changed back again. She wouid not be a fairy, if it cost her love and home ; she would be only a child. And here, just, in time, her mother had run into the room to see what was the matter, and she was clinging at once to the mother’s neck as if she would die of the joy of loving her so much. ‘My darling,’ the mother’s voice said, ‘ the evening was coo exciting for you. You must nob be a fairy in fancy dress again.’ And Fluff in her white nightdress was lifted back into her own bed. And whether she had been to Dreamland and came home from the party asleep, or whether she had been to Fairyland with the green boy who was ‘areal one,’ must for ever remain a mystery. ’