The Fairy Godmothers and Other Tales Read online

it were; so, awaythey went.

  Now picture to yourselves a nice large nursery, much such a one asyour own, in which several children are playing. The eldest, a girl often, you may see yonder lounging--gracefully perhaps--but still_lounging_ in a rocking chair which she is swinging backwards andforwards, having set it in motion by the action of her foot on thefloor. What a lovely face! I do not think you ever saw one so handsomeexcept in a print in one of Mamma's best picture books. All thefeatures are perfectly good and in proportion, and the dark blue eyesare fringed by the longest eyelashes ever seen. The hair of thislittle girl too--look at it, as the soft chestnut ringlets wave abouton her shoulders as she swings, and show the round richness of thecurls.

  Now if you ask about the expression on her face, I must tell you itwas rather languid and "_pensieroso_." Pensieroso is an Italian wordreally meaning thoughtful--but this little girl was not _thinking_,for then the expression of her face would have been much stronger andfirmer and less languid; but the word has got to be used for a sort ofawake-dreamy state when one lets thoughts float lazily along withouthaving any energy to dwell upon them, and see whether they are good orbad.

  The thought that was passing through this little girl's head at thetime I mention and which made her look so languid and pensieroso, was

  "I wish it was 6 o'clock."

  Now here you are ready to laugh, I know, for there was nothing to lookso languid about, in "I wish it was six o'clock!" but the fact wasthis: at half-past six the little girl's Mamma was expecting a largeparty to dinner and the little girl was to dress at six and be readyto go down and see the company:--I might add _and to be seen by them_;for the little girl was, as you will have guessed, the beautifulAurora herself, and there had been plenty of foolish people, thoughher good Mamma was not one of them, to tell her how pretty she was andhow much people admired her.

  It is a very pleasant thing to be admired, both for children and grownup people. "The love of approbation," as it is called, i.e. the wishto be approved of and admired is a feeling which is very strong inmost people; not in quite all, perhaps, but in _most_ peoplecertainly. But like all other powers of the mind considered apart fromthe influence of the heart and conscience, it is capable of being usedto a very bad or a very good purpose. Thus you may remember what ourSaviour says of the Pharisees who stood praying at the corners of thestreets that they might be seen of men: Verily, they had theirreward--viz: that men admired them: whereas those who do good deedsand pray privately, i.e. unseen and unadmired by men, should verilyhave their reward in that day when God who seeth in secret himselfshall reward them openly.

  Here you see is the same strong feeling,--love of approbation,exercised in a wrong and a right direction. The Pharisees wish for theapprobation of men, good people wish for the approbation of God.

  Now, love of approbation exists about much smaller matters than I havejust been mentioning. But I would warn my young readers, that, to bealways thinking, and bothering yourselves as to what other people arethinking about you, is one of the most uncomfortable and injurioushabits a person can get into. It makes them so selfish andegotistical. And here was one of Aurora's dangers. Because she knewshe was pretty, she was always wondering what other people werethinking about her, a habit which so far from contributing to what thegood Fairy had wished, viz. her happiness, was constantly spoiling hercomfort from hour to hour. And here, at ten years old, was this littlelady swinging languidly and idly on the rocking chair, wishing it wassix o'clock, instead of enjoying, as she might so well have done, thatsmall portion of time, time present, which is, as I told you before,the only bit of him we can ever lay hold of, as it were. Of timepresent, just then, she thought nothing. She would have said, (had shebeen asked), that the old gentleman moved very slowly in spite of hiswings, for her eye was fixed on that delightful time future, sixo'clock. Well! at last the clock struck, and Aurora sprang from herchair,--her whole face altered in a moment. "Now, Nurse, I may dress,may I not?" she exclaimed, radiant with animation, and all the languorand dreaminess gone over like a cloud from before the sun. And it istrue that just then Aurora was happy. It was a pleasant task to her toarrange and smooth that curling hair, and to put on the simple whitedress she knew set off her beauty so well. But alas! for the happinesscaused by thoughts of _one's self_! The toilet over, she ran down toher Mamma, and was welcomed with a smile of fondness and approbation.Indeed, when she was happy, a sweeter face could not be seen, for shewas not a naughty child, and if it had not been for the Fairy gift, Ido think she would have been a very nice one.

  The Fairies who invisibly had witnessed all I have described to you,were not so loud in their admiration of Aurora as you or I might havebeen. They are so handsome themselves, they think but little ofearthly beauty, and even Ianthe could not conscientiously say, "What a_happy_ looking little girl she is." That was just the one thing thatwas wanting: ay, and it continued wanting even after the room wasfilled with company, and she was petted, and caressed, and praised onevery side. Her spirits became very high, however, and she enjoyedherself much; and it is perhaps only very very critical folk, bent onspying out a fault, that could have detected the little clouds ofanxiety that now and then shot across her face. A thought of whetherher curls were all right, or her dress untumbled, &c. just now andthen disturbed the charm, and prevented her forgetting herselfsufficiently to allow her to be quite at ease and happy, and she wouldglance at herself in the mirror, and put back the hair from her brow,lest Mrs. I-know-not-who, who was just then entering the room, shouldnot think her quite as lovely as Mrs. Somebody-else did, who had veryfoolishly been saying so rather in a loud tone to her Mamma.

  At last the fatal time arrived to go to bed. Aurora was much toosensible to cry, or be cross, you must know, but as she closed thedoor of the drawing-room and left the gay company, a sigh very heavyfor so young a heart to have breathed, escaped her, and it was slowlyshe retraced her steps up stairs. She was in reality tired, for it waslater than her usual bed-time, and when she went into her room shethrew herself on the chair and yawned. The young Nurse who attended toundress her, asked her if she had enjoyed herself. "Oh yes!" was herready answer. "All is so bright, and gay, and entertaining among thoseladies, and they are so good-natured to me,"--(another sigh coupledwith the recollection of, and _how much they admire me!_)--"But I doso hate being a little girl, and having to go to bed. I wish the timewould come quicker for me to be grown up, and be down stairsaltogether, and talk, and enjoy myself all the evening!" Oh, Aurora,Aurora, with that dissatisfied face where is your beauty? with thatdiscontented mind where is your happiness?

  "Your charm is not working perfectly, Sister," observed Euphrosyne toIanthe.

  "Her's is not the age for perfect happiness and enjoyment as a beauty,remember," replied Ianthe, "and she feels this herself."

  "Man never is but always _to be_ blest," cried Ambrosia laughing. "Yousee I can quote their own poets against them."

  "You are prejudging now, Ambrosia, wait till another ten years isover; but we must see our little beauty through the twenty-fourhours." Ianthe now waved a tiny wand in a circle around Aurora'shead,--the long eyelashes sank over her eyes, and the beautiful childfell into a sweet and placid sleep.

  Morning, which awakens all young creatures to life, enjoyment, andaction, awoke Aurora among the rest, and she arose in health andstrength, and the full glow of animal spirits. "_This is_ happiness,however," exclaimed Ianthe to her companions, as the young girl sprangabout, carolling to herself the while. And so it was, for at thatmoment no forecastings into futurity disturbed the comfort of presentpleasure: but an accidental glimpse of her face caught in alooking-glass as she passed, recalled Aurora to the recollection ofHERSELF! and the admiration she had obtained the evening before. Atfirst some pleasure attended the remembrance, and she gazed with achildish triumph at her pretty face in the glass. In a few minutes,however, the voice of her Governess calling her to lessons disturbedthe egotistical amusement, and the charming Aurora frowned--yes,_frowned!_ and
looked cross at the looking-glass before she quittedthe apartment.

  And now, dear little readers, let me remind you that Aurora was aclever little girl, for the Fairy had taken care of that. She hadevery faculty for learning, and no real dislike to it; but thisunlucky Fairy gift was in the way of every thing she did, for it tookaway her interest in every thing but herself; and so, though she gotthrough her lessons respectably, it was with many yawns, and not a fewsighs, and wonderings what Mamma was doing; and did the Governessthink there would soon be another dinner party? and didn't theGoverness, when _she_ was a little girl, wish very much she was agrown up woman? and, finally, she wished she had been able to talkwhen she was a baby at her christening, because then me would havebegged the Fairy Godmother to give her the gift of growing up to