Faerie Tulips
Once upon a time there was a good
old woman who lived in a little house.
She had in her garden a bed of beautiful striped tulips.
One night she was wakened by the sounds of sweet singing and of
babies
laughing. She looked out at the window. The sounds seemed to come
from the
tulip bed, but she could see nothing.
The next morning she walked among her flowers, but there were no
signs of
any one having been there the night before.
On the following night she was again wakened by sweet singing and
babies
laughing. She rose and stole softly through her garden. The moon
was
shining brightly on the tulip bed, and the flowers were swaying
to and
fro. The old woman looked closely and she saw, standing by each
tulip, a
little Fairy mother who was crooning and rocking the flower like
a cradle,
while in each tulip-cup lay a little Fairy baby laughing and
playing.
The good old woman stole quietly back to her house, and from that
time on
she never picked a tulip, nor did she allow her neighbors to
touch the
flowers.
The tulips grew daily brighter in color and larger in size, and
they gave
out a delicious perfume like that of roses. They began, too, to
bloom all
the year round. And every night the little Fairy mothers caressed
their
babies and rocked them to sleep in the flower-cups.
The day came when the good old woman died, and the tulip-bed was
torn up
by folks who did not know about the Fairies, and parsley was
planted there
instead of the flowers. But the parsley withered, and so did all
the other
plants in the garden, and from that time nothing would grow there.
But the good old woman's grave grew beautiful, for the Fairies
sang above
it, and kept it green; while on the grave and all around it there
sprang
up tulips, daffodils, and violets, and other lovely flowers of
spring.
An English
Folktale courtesy of Clan of the Faerie
artwork by Brian L. Froud
