The fairy babies

One Saturday morning it began to storm and it snowed and the wind blew harder and harder.

The Ink-Bottle Babies said, “Oh Ma! what shall we do?”

The Ink-Bottle Mamma said, “What month is this?”

Molly and Polly said, “It is February.”

Then the twenty-three other Ink-Bottle Babies set up a shout. They cried, “Valentines! Valentines!”

The Ink-Bottle Mamma said, “You have guessed right; we are going to make valentines.”

Then the Ink-Bottle Babies got some tables and scissors and paste.

The Ink-Bottle Mamma brought paper and some pictures, and she said, “You may cut out some hearts.”

Then the Ink-Bottle Babies went to work. They got paste on the table and on their hands and faces.

Then suddenly Polly set up a cry, and soon all the Ink-Bottle Babies shouted, “Oh Ma! Polly has cut her finger! Oh Ma! Come quickly!”

Sure enough, Polly had cut her finger.

The Ink-Bottle Mamma came and tied it up and said, “Every one of you wash your hands. I can’t have all my Babies cut their fingers!”

So the Ink-Bottle Babies got out twenty-five little basins and filled them with water, and they washed their hands.

Then they said, “Read us a fine fairy tale, Ma, please do.”

So Mamma got out the fairy tale book and read this story of The Magic Spoon:

Once upon a time there was a merry little dwarf. He sang all day,

Then the little dwarf sat down by the table. He had a great yellow bowl, and a silver spoon in front of him.

He stirred some flour around in the bowl, and what do you suppose he took out of the bowl? He took out a beautiful gold necklace!

Then he stirred again, and he took out a blue necklace; then he stirred again, and he took out a red one.

All the time as he worked he sang over and over,

At last the spoon got tired working and it said,

The little dwarf was so surprised to hear the spoon speak that he stopped stirring the flour in the bowl, and just at that very minute there was heard a rap at the door.

The little dwarf hid the spoon and went to the door. There stood a very ugly old dwarf. His name was Cross-Patch. All the dwarfs in the wood were afraid of him.

He stamped his foot now and said,

Then the first little dwarf shook his head and cried,

Cross-Patch said,

He went off muttering to himself, and shaking his cross old head as he went away.

Now the little dwarf was not at all afraid. He said, “I will hide my spoon in a safe place.”

Then he put on the red necklace and the blue necklace and the gold necklace, and he said, “When I meet the Fairy Queen I will give her a new necklace every day.”

Just then the little dwarf heard a great flapping of wings. He looked out and he saw one hundred crows.

Old Cross-Patch had sent the crows to eat up the little dwarf’s corn!

The crows ate all night, and till noon the next day.

Then they flapped their wings and went away, and old Cross-Patch came and said,

The little dwarf was angry, you may be sure. He shook his head and cried,

Then old Cross-Patch shook his fist at the little dwarf and ran down the road. “I have spoiled your corn,” he called back, but this time the little dwarf did not answer him.

The next night there was a great noise, and five and twenty little dwarfs came and blew so much soot down the chimney that everything in the little dwarf’s house was ruined.

I should say everything except one was ruined. The box in which the little dwarf kept the spoon and necklaces was safe because it was under his pillow.

The next morning old Cross-Patch came as before and said,

The little dwarf was very angry and he shouted,

Old Cross-Patch went away scolding and grumbling as before. Late that night there was a great noise, and the bricks from the chimney began to fall. The little dwarf had just time to grab his box and run out at the door.

All the bricks from the house fell one upon another, and soon the little house was all gone; only a pile of bricks remained!

Old Cross-Patch came again and said,

The little dwarf had lovely golden curls. Now the spoon was so angry at Cross-Patch that he could stand it no longer.

He turned very red in the face and began to kick and roll over.

He sprang out of the box, and jumped right at old Cross-Patch and cried,

Then the spoon boxed Cross-Patch on the right ear and on the left ear.

“Oh! oh! oh! please stop!” called Cross-Patch.

The little dwarf was so tickled he stood by and clapped his hands.

Then the spoon turned to old Cross-Patch and said,

Then old Cross-Patch saw there was no way out of it, so he had to go and pile one brick on another, and if he did not work fast enough the spoon would slap him on the back.

The five and twenty dwarfs who had sent soot down the chimney came, and they were sorry for Cross-Patch, and went to work to help him rebuild the house.

The spoon danced about and rapped them all sharply every once in a while.

When the house was all done the spoon cried,

The spoon made Cross-Patch clean everything in the house. Then the spoon cried,

Then Cross-Patch and the little dwarfs worked all night. They planted corn in the little garden. The spoon got so angry it beat them all until they were black and blue; then finally it chased old Cross-Patch away, and away, and away, out into the Land of Nowhere.

The five and twenty little men saw that the corn they had planted was already beginning to grow, so they laid down and went to sleep.

Pretty soon the spoon came back.

There high in the tree sat the little dwarf; beside him sat the Fairy Queen.

The Queen said,

Then the little dwarf helped the Fairy Queen down from the tree and they went into the house.

The spoon went in, too, and it began to stir at a terrible rate, all by itself in a great big bowl, and pretty soon there came out of the bowl the finest gold necklace in the land.

The Fairy Queen clapped her hands and cried to the dwarf and the spoon, “You will always be welcome in my palace.”

Then the dwarf clasped the necklace around her neck, and she was gone.

The spoon stood up very straight and sang,

Then the spoon jumped up into the box on the shelf. The five and twenty little dwarfs woke up and tapped politely at the door, and asked for breakfast, but the spoon called out from its hiding place,

Then the five and twenty little dwarfs ran away as fast as their legs could carry them.

The little dwarf forgot what the spoon had said and he went about his work singing,

Now the magic spoon was so upset to think the little dwarf could not keep still that he sprang down from the shelf and cried,

Then he beat the little dwarf all the way to the palace of the Fairy Queen, where he became a servant and he never dared to return to his home.

The magic spoon went back to his place on the shelf.

For all I know he may be there yet!

“Didn’t any one ever see the magic spoon after that?” asked Polly.

“Is it a really, truly, true story?” asked Molly.

Then the other Babies laughed so hard that they rolled over and over on the floor, and at last they said, “Some day we will go in search of the magic spoon and the magic pitcher. May we go, Ma?”

The Ink-Bottle Mamma laughed and said, “It is time for you funny little Babies to go to bed.”

The Ink-Bottle Mamma read so slowly it had taken her all day to read the story.

The Babies went off happily to bed singing,

Just then some one tapped on the door. It was the Ink-Bottle Papa. He had been away for his health for a year and a day!

The Ink-Bottle Mamma was glad to see him again, you may be sure.

She said, “Hush, my dear, we may wake the Babies.” But she was not quick enough, for all the Babies woke up and began to come downstairs by twos and threes to see who had come to their house.

They hugged their dear Papa until he cried out, “Look in my pockets and see a surprise!”

Then the Ink-Bottle Babies looked in his pockets and drew out twenty-five little silver spoons.

They all looked exactly alike, and the Babies cried, “Thank you, Papa, we will call them our magic spoons.”

Then the Babies went to bed again.