The Fairy Godmothers and Other Tales Read online

  DARKNESS AND LIGHT.

  _The darkness and the light to Thee are both alike_.

  Far away to the west, on the borders of the Sea, there lived a ladyand gentleman in a beautiful old house built something like a castle.They had several children, nice little boys and girls, who were farfonder of their Sea Castle, as they called it, than of a very pleasanthouse which they had in a great town at some distance off. Still theyused to go and be very merry in the Town House in the winter time whenthe hail and snow fell, and the winds blew so cold that nobody couldbear to walk out by the wild sea shore.

  But in summer weather the case was quite altered. Indeed, as soon asever the sun began to get a little power, and to warm the panes ofglass in the nursery windows of the Town House, there was a hue andcry among all the children to be off to their Sea Castle home, andmany a time had Papa and Mamma to send them angrily out of the room,because they would do nothing but beg to "set off directly." They werealways "sure that the weather was getting quite hot," and "it _must_be summer, for they heard the sparrows chirping every morning thefirst thing," and they "thought they had seen a swallow," and "thewindows got so warm with the sunshine, Nurse declared they were enoughto burn one's fingers:" and so the poor little things teazedthemselves and everybody else, every year, in their hurry to get backto their western home. But I dare say you have heard the old proverb,"One swallow does not make a summer;" and so it was proved very oftento our friends. For the Spring season is so changeable, there areoften some soft mild days, and then a cruel frost comes again, andperhaps snow as well; and people who have boasted about fine weatherand put off their winter clothes, look very foolish.

  Still Time passes on; and when May was half over, the Town House usedto echo with shouts of noisy delight, and boxes were banged down inthe passages, and there was a great calling out for cords, and muchscolding about broken keys and padlocks, and the poor Carpenter whocame to mend the trunks and find new keys to old locks, was at hiswits' end and his patience' end too.

  But at last the time came when all this bustle was succeeded bysilence in the Town House, for carriages had rolled away with thehappy party, and nobody was left behind but two or three womenservants to clean out the deserted rooms.

  And now then, my little readers, who are, I hope, wondering what iscoming next, you must fancy to yourselves the old Sea Castle Home. Ithad two large turrets; and winding staircases led from the passagesand kitchens underneath the sitting rooms, up to the top of theturrets, and so out upon the leads of the house, from which there wasthe most beautiful view of the Ocean you ever saw; and, as the top ofthe house was battlemented, like the top of your church tower, peoplecould walk about quite safely and comfortably, without any fear offalling over. Then, though it is a very unusual thing near the Sea,there were delightful gardens at the place, and a few very fine oldelm trees near the house, in which a party of rooks built their nestsevery year; and the children had gardens of their own, in which theycould dig up their flowers to see if the roots were growing, to theirheart's content, and perform other equally ingenious feats, such aswatering a plant two or three times a day, or after a shower of rain,and then wondering that, with such tender care, the poor thing shouldrot away and die.

  But I almost think the children liked the sands on the shore as wellas the gardens, though they loved both. Not that there was anyamusement astir by the water side there, as you have seen in otherplaces where there are boats and fishermen and nets, and great coilsof ropes, and an endless variety of entertaining sights connected withthe seafaring business going on. Nay, in some places where there isnot a very good shore for landing, it is an amusement of itself to seeeach boat or fishing yawl come in. There is such a contrast betweenthe dark tarred wood and the white surf that dashes up all round it;and the fishermen are so clever in watching the favourable moment fora wave to carry them over their difficulties; that I think this is oneof the prettiest sights one can see. But no such thing was ever seenon the shore by the old Sea Castle, for there was no fishing there.People thought the sea was too rough and the landing too difficult,and so no fishing village had ever been built, and no boats everattempted to come within many miles of the place.

  Nobody cared to ask further, or try to account for the wildness of thesea on that coast; but I can tell you all about it, although it mustbe in a sort of half whisper--_The place was on the borders of FairyLand!_ that is to say, many many unknown numbers of miles out at sea,right opposite to the Castle, there was a Fairy Island, and it was theFairies who kept the sea so rough all round them, for fear someadventurous sailor should approach the island, or get near enough tofish up some of the pearls and precious stones they kept in a crystalpalace underneath the water.

  So now you know the reason why the sea was so rough, and there was nofishing going on at the Sea Castle Home.

  If you want to know whether any body ever saw the Fairy Island, I mustsay, yes; but very seldom. And never but in the evening when the sunwas setting, and that under particular circumstances--namely, when hewent down into a dark red bank of clouds, or when there was a luridcrimson hue over the sky just above the horizon. Then occasionally youmight see the dim hazy outline as of a beautiful mountainous islandagainst the clouds, or the deep-coloured sky. There is an islandsometimes seen from our western coast, under similar circumstances,but which you strain your eyes in vain to discern by the brighterlight of day.[6]

  [6] Isle of Man from Blackpool.

  It is a very ticklish thing to live on the borders of Fairy Land; forthough you cannot get to the Fairies, they can get to you, and it isnot altogether a pleasant thing to have your private affairs overseenand interfered with by such beings as they are, though sometimes itmay be most useful and agreeable. Besides which, there was aFairy-secret connected with the family that lived at the Sea Castle.An Ancestress of the present Mistress had been a Fairy herself, andthough she had accommodated herself to mortal manners, and lived withher husband quite quietly as well as happily, and so her origin hadbeen in a great measure forgotten, it was not unknown to herdescendant, the Lady Madeline, who now lived in the place. And, infact, soon after Lady Madeline first came there, a Fairy named Eudorahad appeared to her, declaring herself to be a sort of distant cousin,and offering and promising friendship and assistance, whenever askedor even wished for. In return, she only begged to be allowed to visit,and ramble at will about the old place which she had known for so manymany long years, and had once had the unlimited run of; and sheprotested with tears that the family should never in any way bedisturbed by her. Lady Madeline could not well refuse the request, butI cannot say she gave her fairy acquaintance any encouragement; and sopoor Eudora never showed herself to them again. And Madeline neverthought much about her, except now and then accidentally, when, ifthey were walking on the sands, some extraordinarily rare andbeautiful shells would be thrown ashore by a wave at the children'sfeet, as if tossed up especially for their amusement. And it was onlyin some such kind little way as this they were ever reminded of theFairy's existence.

  Lady Madeline's eldest son, Roderick, always seemed most favoured bythe Fairy in the pretty things she sent ashore, and certainly he was avery nice boy, and a very good one on the whole--cheerful and honestas the daylight, and very intelligent; but I cannot tell you, dearreaders, that he had _no_ faults, for that was not at all likely, andyou would not believe it if I said so, even although he is to be theHero of my tale.

  Now I do not want to make you laugh at him, but the story requiresthat I should reveal to you one of his weak points. Well then,although he was six years old, he was afraid of being alone in thedark! Sometimes when he was in the large dining room with his Fatherand Mother at dinner time, she would perhaps ask him to fetchsomething for her from the drawing room which was close by; but, doyou know, if there were no candles in the room, he would look verysilly and refuse to go, even though there were a fire sufficient tosee by. He was too honest to make any false excuses, so he used justto say that the room was so dark he could not
go!

  Poor Madeline was very sorry, for she wanted her little boy to bebrave, but somehow or other he had got very silly about his fears ofbeing in the dark, and she could not succeed in curing him of hisfolly.

  "My dear Roderick," she would say sometimes, "if I send in somecandles, will you go into the drawing room?"

  "O yes, Mamma."

  "Then do you really mean to say you think _the Candles take care ofyou_?"

  "No, Mamma."

  "Then why won't you go into the room without; you know there is afire?

  "Because it is so dark, Mamma."

  Here was a difficulty indeed; for you see he _would_ come back to theold point, and would not listen to reason.

  One day some conversation of this sort having passed between them,Madeline, as she was wont to do, asked him if God could not take careof him by night as well as by day; in the dark as