Fairy Tale Junction

A Compendium of Fairy Tales I remember
...for my children

The Holly Berries

 

From the 1917 New Barnes Readers Book Two

In the deep forest there lived a number of tiny fairies. These little people had a great treasure which they guarded very carefully. It was a queer thing for a treasure - only a tiny cap, but a very wonderful cap for all that.

When a fairy wore this cap, the whole fairy band became invisible. They could open the flowers at dawn, dance on the sunbeams by day, and light the fireflies' candles at duck without being seen.

This cap would fit any one, and a great giant who lived in the forest wanted it for himself. He had tried and tried to get it, but the fairies watched it so carefully that the giant had never been able to find it.

One day when the fairies were coming home they found the great giant asleep in the valley. They thought he was a mountain and that his snores were thunder. They began at once to hunt for a place to hide the cap till the storm was over. One little fairy thought his ear was a great cave and hid the cap there. This wakened the giant who was so delighted to have the cap that he let the fairies escape.

But the poor little fairies were sad at heart. What could they do without the magic cap? Who would open the morning flowers or light the fireflies' candles? All day long they hid under the holly trees and cried as if there hearts would break.

An old eagle who was friendly with the fairies promised them that he would get their lost treasure. Many times the eagle flew over the mountains, but of course the giant had on the magic cap and could not be seen.

But one day the giant went to battle. He was very proud of his size and wanted to be seen, so he rolled a stone aside and put the cap under it.

The eagle was watching from the blue sky. He flew down, and with his strong talons and beak pulled the cap from under the stone and soared away.

 

The giant saw him and shot arrows at him till the eagle was wounded in many places and great drops of blood fell on the holly trees as he passed over them. But he kept on till he had placed the cap safely in the hands of the fairies.

They healed the eagle's wounds, but wherever his blood touched the holly trees as he flew over them, little red berries appeared. The fairies were not willing that the unselfish eagle's blood should die, so they made it live again in the beautiful blood-red holly berries.

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