Analy High School - Azalea Yearbook (Sebastopol, CA)

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4 ‘Of course there are fairies,” said mother smiling. Isabel jumped up and down on her small toes and cried, “Where do you find them, mother ?” Her mother picked her up and s,at her on her knee and began a little story which went something like this: “Once there was a little girl who did not believe there were any fairies. Every little flower she saw she would crumple, and every pretty bug or butterfly she would kill, just so the fairies wouldn’t have them to make them happy. Well, you might say that this little girl was cruel, and so she was.” Mother paused for a moment, and looked down at the seri¬ ous and attentive child and began the story again. “This little girl continued this cruel pastime until she was ten years old. When one day she came to her mother and asked, just as you did, ‘Mother are there any fairies?’ Her mother said , ‘Yes,’ but the child did not stop her cruel habit. One day she wanted a squirrel for a pet, and her mother considered for a long time and at last said, ‘Did you know that squirrels are fairies’ horses?’ ‘No,’ said the little girl, ‘I didn’t.’ ” “Th,at night when the little girl was asleep the Dream Fairy sent her a dream. In this dream she saw a pretty brown squirrel with a big, bushy, and plumy tail. If only she had the pretty squirrel! But a dainty Fairy Princess danced up and sat on his back and away they went. The little girl followed and killed the squirrel and with him she crushed the tiny fairy. The ' little girl woke up with a start. It was morning and her mother was calling her. This morning as she went out she carefully picked her way among the flowers, and did not kill any bugs or bees. Three days later she was walking in the field and she heard a chatter under a bush. A little squirrel was sitting under the bush blinking his eyes. Around his neck was a gold chain, and a piece of paper, on which was written in the daintiest hand a fairy PAGE 18

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The rider was as white as death ,and seemed stunned. He looked straight at her and tears were forming in the eyes of both. “I am Roger Walters, Ethel, the son of the man whom your father murdered. I came here to avenge his death, by killing your father. When I intend to do anything I always do it, but you stand between my vengeance and your father. I can’t kill him.” One evening, as summer was closing, there were four sitting on the porch. A gray-haired man rested his hand on a young, strong shoulder, the shoulder that might have braced the gun tiiat would liave killed him. A curly-headed little boy sat by Roger Walters, while a girl dreamed of a little cottage over the hill. She saw her father and his mother sitting together on its porch, and then the dream faded into the present scene of happiness. Roger commenced to sing: ‘ ‘ From the desert I come to you On a stallion shod with fire”— Ethel took up the song and they sang it together, while her father sighed, then smiled.

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could master: ‘I am Dick, and tlie Fairy Queen sent me because you have been kind to our bugs and flowers.’ She gathered the tiny crea¬ ture into her arms and ran home.” Mother finished and set Isabel on her feet again. “Now,” said mother, “All good people are rewarded by the fairies.” “But,” said perplexed Isabel, “Where do you find the fairies?” Mother laughed. “Some day when you grow up you will she fairies, my dear.” Isabel skipped out of doors and began to hunt for the fairies, but she could find none. Every day she spent most of her time in hunting and plying her mother with innumerable questions concerning the fairies, the mysterious little winged creatures. One night g great commotion was heard in Fairy Land. The Princes and Princesses were busy making room for the new comers. The Fairy Queen was very worried and was giving orders so fast that the Heralds had their gold note books so thickly covered with orders that they did not know where to begin to give them out, but as was their custom they began with the nursery, which was just as they should have done. The last few days a great many little kindnesses had suddenly been pouring in. Occasionally a big one would arrive, but most of them were tiny ones. All these little kindnesses were coming from Isabel and accordingly a Fairy Spy was sent out to find the reason why so many were coming to Fairy Land. It took him many days before he found out that Isabel wanted to see a fairy and this was the cause of so much kindness. Thereafter the fairies made room for the little kindnesses. One day a terribly black unk’ndness passed Fairy 1 and on the way to the Goblin’s Cave. All the fairies hid their eyes in their tiny hands. Isabel l ad told her mother that she would not go to the store, and so poor tired mother had to go. The Goblins rejoiced because Isabel had done an unkindness and they jeered at the Fairies in their new found companion, the unkindness. = Isabel gradually grew up, as all children must do, and not being an unusual child, no one noticed her any more than they did anv other girls of twelve years. Only there was one thing that separated be fiom the others, she believed in fairies. Many girls at school laughed at her and called her a baby, for none of them thought of such babyish things. They scorned to. r Isabel, as she was always wont to do, plied her mother with useless PAGE 19