THE LITTLE GIRL THROW-AWAY

Little Girl Throw-Away was always throwing something away from morning until night.

“She threw away paper, she threw away string
She threw away almost everything.”

One day a fairy peeped in the window and called,

“Little Girl Throw-Away,
Hear what the Thrifty Fairies say.”

The little girl said, “I don’t believe in fairies except big ones like Santa Claus.”

Then the most surprising thing happened.

THE LITTLE FAIRY FROM THRIFT TOWN STEPPED OUT (See page 50)

The Thrifty Fairies sailed in the window and tugged at the little girl’s dress and apron, and soon they carried her away, away, away to Thrift Town.

There every one was smiling and happy and every one was talking about saving something.

They called in merry little voices,

“Save to-day, save to-morrow,
Then you’ll never have to borrow.”

The Thrifty people were very, very small and looked like real fairies. One little Fairy called,

“I’d make a four-poster bed to-day,
If I had your pencils, Girl Throw-Away.”

Little Girl Throw-Away looked in her dress pocket and apron pocket, but she could not find any pencils at all. Then the Fairy said,

“I like paper sheets, you think it funny,
But they would save me lots of money.”

Then Little Girl Throw-Away, sighed, “Oh dear, oh dear, I do throw away things so much, I never save my paper, I never write on both sides of a sheet.”

The Fairy next said in a sing-song kind of way,

“I would be glad of everything,
If I only had a ball of string.”

She would not tell anyone what she wanted the string for.

By and by the Thrifty Fairies took Little Girl Throw-Away home.

She sat in her little red rocking chair and said, “I cannot see the Fairies now, but I will begin to save for them!”

So she saved her little bits of pencils and paper and string, and laid them in a little box on the window-sill every night, and every morning they were gone.

She saved all the paper bags too, that came to the house for the Fairies.

By and by at the end of a year and a day, she saw a Fairy balloon.

It sailed down, down, down, and the little Fairy from Thrift Town stepped out and said,

“Our balloon is made of your paper and string
And kites too we have made, and everything.”

THEY HAD A BIRTHDAY PARTY AND DANCED ROUND AND ROUND IN A RING (See page 66)

She gave Little Girl Throw-Away a tiny little white box. On opening it, the Little Girl found a tiny gold ring with a forget-me-not upon it. Inside the ring was written,

“Save a bit every day,
Help the fairies in their play.”

Waving her hand gayly the little Fairy stepped back into her balloon and sailed away, away, away to Thrift Town.

Little Girl Throw-Away put her ring on her third finger and wished it on, saying,

“I am Save-A-Bit, you understand,
For I have been to Fairyland!”

Soon every little girl in town was saving paper, and pencils and strings, and I think the Fairies must often have dropped things down to them from their gay balloons, for the children wore happy smiles and talked in a fairy language.

They sang fairy songs too,

“Think, before you throw away,
That’s what all the fairies say,
The Thrifty Fairies wear a smile,
And that’s what makes their life worthwhile.”

Little Girl Throw-Away became a very thrifty child and sometimes she talked in fairy rhymes.

“I’m very glad the fairies came,
And played with me a pleasant game,
If you would like to do the same,
Just save a bit, and change your name.”

The Little Girl changed her name to “Girl Save-A-Bit,” and many a time she played with the Fairies from Thrift Town.