Now, although she had sold all her b.u.t.ter and cream, she could neither pay her rent, nor have any b.u.t.termilk with her rye bread and flummery.
"Dry your tears and take comfort," said the tall lady in the green peaked hat. "Here is money enough to pay your rent and buy another cow." With that, she sat down at the round table near the peat fire.
Opening her bag, the shining gold coins slid out and formed a little heap on the table.
"There, you can have all this, if you will give me all I want."
At first, the widow"s eyes opened wide, and then she glanced at the cradle, where her baby was sleeping. Then she wondered, though she said nothing.
But the next moment, she was laughing at herself, and looking around at her poor cottage. She tried to guess what there was in it, that the old lady could possibly want.
"You can have anything I have. Name it," she said cheerfully to her visitor.
But only a moment more, and all her fears returned at the thought that the visitor might ask for her boy.
The old lady spoke again and said:
"I want to help you all I can, but what I came here for is to get the little boy in the cradle."
The widow now saw that the old woman was a fairy, and that if her visitor got hold of her son, she would never see her child again.
So she begged piteously of the old lady, to take anything and everything, except her one child.
"No, I want that boy, and, if you want the gold, you must let me take him."
"Is there anything else that I can do for you, so that I may get the money?" asked the widow.
"Well, I"ll make it easier for you. There are two things I must tell you to cheer you."
"What are they?" asked the widow, eagerly.
"One is, that by our fairy law, I cannot take your boy, until three days have pa.s.sed. Then, I shall come again, and you shall have the gold; but only on the one condition I have stated."
"And the next?" almost gasped the widow.
"If you can guess my name, you will doubly win; for then, I shall give you the gold and you can keep your boy."
Without waiting for another word, the lady in green scooped up her money, put it back in the bag, and moved off and out the door.
The poor woman, at once a widow and mother, and now stripped of her property, fearing to lose her boy, brooded all night over her troubles and never slept a wink.
In the morning, she rose up, left her baby with a neighbor, and went to visit some relatives in the next village, which was several miles distant. She told her story, but her kinsfolk were too poor to help her. So, all disconsolate, she turned her face homewards.
On her way back she had to pa.s.s through the woods, where, on one side, was a clearing. In the middle of this open s.p.a.ce, was a ring of gra.s.s.
In the ring a little fairy lady was tripping around and singing to herself.
Creeping up silently, the anxious mother heard to her joy, a rhymed couplet and caught the sound of a name, several times repeated. It sounded like "Silly Doot."
Hurrying home and perfectly sure that she knew the secret that would save her boy, she set cheerily about her regular work and daily tasks.
In fact, she slept soundly that night.
Next day, in came the lady in green as before, with her bag of money.
Taking her seat at the round table, near the fire, she poured out the gold. Then jingling the coins in the pile, she said:
"Now give up your boy, or guess my name, if you want me to help you."
The young widow, feeling sure that she had the old fairy in a trap, thought she would have some fun first.
"How many guesses am I allowed?" she asked.
"All you want, and as many as you please," answered the green lady, smiling.
The widow rattled off a string of names, English, Welsh and Biblical; but every time the fairy shook her head. Her eyes began to gleam, as if she felt certain of getting the boy. She even moved her chair around to the side nearest the cradle.
"One more guess," cried the widow. "Can it be Silly Doot?"
At this sound, the fairy turned red with rage. At the same moment, the door opened wide and a blast of wind made the hearth fire flare up.
Leaving her gold behind her, the old woman flew up the chimney, and disappeared over the housetops.
The widow scooped up the gold, bought two cows, furnished her cottage with new chairs and fresh flowers, and put the rest of the coins away under one of the flag stones at the hearth. When her boy grew up, she gave him a good education, and he became one of the fearless judges, who, with the aid of Baron Owen, rooted out of their lair the Red Bandits, that had robbed his mother. Since that day, there has been little crime in Wales--the best governed part of the kingdom.
XXIII
THE FAIRY CONGRESS
One can hardly think of Wales without a harp. The music of this most ancient and honorable instrument, which emits sweet sounds, when heard in a foreign land makes Welsh folks homesick for the old country and the music of the harp. Its strings can wail with woe, ripple with merriment, sound out the notes of war and peace, and lift the soul in heavenly melody.
Usually a player on the harp opened the Eistedfodd, as the Welsh literary congress is called, but this time they had engaged for the fairies a funny little fellow to start the programme with a solo on his violin.
The figure of this musician, at the congress of Welsh fairies, was the most comical of any in the company. The saying that he was popular with all the mountain spirits was shown to be true, the moment he began to sc.r.a.pe his fiddle, for then they all crowded around him.
"Did you ever see such a tiny specimen?" asked Queen Mab of Puck.
The little fiddler came forward and drawing his instrument from under his arm, proceeded to sc.r.a.pe the strings. He had on a pair of moss trousers, and his coat was a yellow gorse flower. His feet were clad in shoes made of beetles" wings, which always kept bright, as if polished with a brush.
When one looked at the fiddle, he could see that it was only a wooden spoon, with strings across the bowl. But the moment he drew the bow from one side to the other, all the elves, from every part of the hills, came tripping along to hear the music, and at once began dancing.
Some of these elves were dressed in pink, some in blue, others in yellow, and many had glow worms in their hands. Their tread was so light that the flower stems never bent, nor was a petal crushed, when they walked over the turf. All, as they came near, bowed or dropped a curtsey. Then the little musician took off his cap to each, and bowed in return.
There was too much business before the meeting for dancing to be kept up very long, but when the violin solo was over, at a sign given by the fiddler, the dancers took seats wherever they could find them, on the gra.s.s, or gorse, or heather, or on the stones. After order had been secured, the chairman of the meeting read regrets from those who had been invited but could not be present.
The first note was from the mermaids, who lived near the Green Isles of the Ocean. They asked to be excused from traveling inland and climbing rocks. In the present delicate state of their health this would be too fatiguing. Poor things!
It was unanimously voted that they be excused.