Nina put her arms around Brindle Cow and cried when Jack was ready to lead her away and watched them down the road; but her tears blinded her so she could not see far, and she went back to get Simon"s breakfast with a sad heart.
When Jack came to the woods he led Brindle Cow to a stream to drink, and while he sat on the bank, waiting, he was surprised to see a Fairy slip out of a lily as it opened.
"I thought you were never coming," said the little creature.
Jack thought it was to him she was speaking, and while he tried to find his tongue, which clung to his mouth, he was so surprised, Brindle Cow answered.
"We had to wait for daylight, you know," she said.
"Yes, I know; but the sun will soon be up, and I must get home before that," said the Fairy. "Now what can I do for you?"
"Save my life! I am on the way to the butcher now," replied Brindle Cow.
"You told me that day I did not eat the field flower in which you were sleeping that you would help me if ever I was in need of help," said Brindle Cow.
"Last night I saw one of your sisters and told her my sad plight. The Field Flower Fairy would help me if I could only find her," I said.
""Oh! She will be by the stream in the wood. She sits in a lily until it is time to go home in the morning. I will tell her," she said."
""Of course I will help you," said the Field Fairy. "I will change you into anything you like. What shall it be?"
"There is another thing, good Field Fairy," said Brindle Cow. "This poor boy will be punished if I am not carried to the butcher and the money he gets carried back to Simon. This boy and his sister have been very kind to me. They never forgot to bring me water and gave me salt many times when their master did not know it. I should not like to get them into trouble, even to save my life."
"Oh, please do not mind us," said Jack, who at last was able to speak.
"Nina and I will not mind being punished if only you can escape the butcher."
"I have thought of a plan," said the Fairy, "that will save you from the butcher, and will not cause your two friends the least harm, either. It is this:
"Instead of changing you into some other shape, why not change your master into a kind and good man?"
"Oh, that would be best of all," said Jack, "that is, if Brindle Cow does not object to remaining a cow."
"I would rather be a cow if I can be sure I am going to live," replied Brindle Cow. "But you can understand, of course, there can be no joy in life for me with that butcher staring me in the face."
"Well, that is all settled, then," replied the Fairy, "and though the sun is getting well up I think I can get to your master without letting the old Sun Man see me, for it is cool and shady along the road to the farm. You two wait here and see what happens."
Jack wondered what the Field Fairy intended to do, but he would not be surprised now at anything, so he began to pick some berries, for he had not had his breakfast, and now Brindle Cow was sure she was not going to the butcher. So she began to eat the sweet gra.s.s by the stream.
Jack thought she might speak again and he patted her sides and nose, but the only answer Brindle Cow made was to rub her nose against him and moo.
After a while Jack heard some one calling his name and running down the road. It was Nina. "Oh, I am so glad I have found you!" she said.
"Come quickly; something has happened to Simon."
Jack let Brindle Cow take care of herself and hurried after Nina, wondering what the Fairy had done to Simon.
But it seemed that Simon had brought on his trouble himself by trying to save the wood that morning when Nina told him she needed more wood for the fire. Instead of giving her more wood he had poured on some oil and the flame had blazed up and burnt him.
When Jack and Nina reached the farmhouse Simon was on the floor, groaning with pain.
Forgetting all the unkindness they had received at his hands, Jack and Nina lifted him from the floor and placed him on his bed. Then they did all they could to relieve his sufferings.
Nina bathed his face and hands and Jack bandaged them, and by and by he fell asleep. When he awoke he asked for some gruel, and then he remembered Brindle Cow.
"Poor creature!" said Simon. "I wish I had kept her even if she was getting old; but it is too late now, for, of course, the butcher has her."
Just then, "Moo, moo!" was heard outside, and for the first time since he left her at the stream Jack thought of Brindle Cow.
"Why, there she is now!" he said. "I did not get to the butcher"s this morning because Nina called me before I had gone beyond the woods.
"I"ll never sell her," said Simon. "Go out, Jack, and give her a good dinner, and to-night see that she has a nice bed of straw in the barn."
That day for dinner Simon told Nina to have a good meat stew and that Nina and Jack were to eat all they wanted.
Jack told Nina what had happened at the stream in the woods and asked her if she thought the Fairy had anything to do with the accident that happened to Simon.
"Of course not," said Nina. "Fairies always do good, not bad things, and, besides, Simon must have been burnt at the very time you saw the Fairy, and I wonder if you really did see a Fairy, after all. Are you sure you did not fall asleep and dream it all?"
Jack was quite sure he did not dream it, but never again did Brindle Cow speak--at least, Jack never heard her if she did.
But when Simon recovered from his burns and was quite well again something did happen, and whether the Field Fairy and Brindle Cow had anything to do with it Jack and Nina never knew.
Simon was a changed man, that was sure. He would not let Nina do the work any more, but sent both of the children to school. He fixed up the house and bought new furniture, and, best of all, he bought nice clothing for Jack and Nina.
"And if you don"t mind," said Simon to Jack and Nina one day, "I wish you would call me Uncle Simon."
He even bought a nice horse and pretty willow carriage for the children to drive to school; in fact, everybody thought Simon must have lost his mind, he was so changed.
"It must be the work of the Field Fairy," said Jack when he and Nina were talking over what the neighbors said about Simon. "She said she would change him into a kind and good man."
"Perhaps she came and found him burnt and thought she would wait and see what happened to him," said Nina, "but I think you fell asleep that morning, Jack, while you were waiting for Brindle Cow to drink at the stream."
"Brindle Cow saw the Fairy. Didn"t you, Brindle?" asked Jack, as Brindle Cow came up to the stone wall where Jack and Nina stood.
Brindle Cow looked over the wall straight at Jack and answered, "Mo-o-o."
"It does not matter, Jack," said Nina, with a laugh, as she patted Brindle Cow on the nose. "It has all turned out so well and Uncle Simon could not be kinder or nicer to us now if he were our father.
Sometimes I think it is all because when he was so sick and helpless that we were kind to him and did all we could even though he had almost starved us and made us work so hard. I think he is sorry for it and is trying to do all he can now to make up for his unkindness and make us forget it."
"Perhaps you are right, Nina," said Jack, "so we will forget it, but I am sure about the Field Fairy, and Brindle Cow knows it is true, for it was the Fairy who saved her from the butcher."
But all the answer Jack could get from Brindle Cow was "M-o-o-o!"
THE FROGS AND THE FAIRIES
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Frogs and the fairies]