Wonder-Box Tales | Page 9

me."
"Indeed!" replied the Fairy. "I wish I could say that they were always
kind to me. How is that quarrelsome Lark who found such a pretty
brown mate the other day?"
"He is not a quarrelsome bird indeed," replied the Grasshopper. "I wish
you would not say that he is."
"Oh, well, we need not quarrel about that," said the Fairy, laughing; "I

have seen the world, Grasshopper, and I know a few things, depend
upon it. Your friend the Lark does not wear those long spurs for
nothing."
The Grasshopper did not choose to contend with the Fairy, who all this
time was busily fitting yellow slippers to her tiny feet. When, however,
she had found a pair to her mind--
"Suppose you come and see the eggs that our pretty friend the Lark has
got in her nest," asked the Grasshopper. "Three pink eggs spotted with
brown. I am sure she will show them to you with pleasure."
Off they set together; but what was their surprise to find the poor little
brown Lark sitting on them with rumpled feathers, drooping head, and
trembling limbs.
"Ah, my pretty eggs!" said the Lark, as soon as she could speak, "I am
so miserable about them--they will be trodden on, they will certainly be
found."
"What is the matter?" asked the Grasshopper. "Perhaps we can help
you."
"Dear Grasshopper," said the Lark, "I have just heard the farmer and
his son talking on the other side of the hedge, and the farmer said that
to-morrow morning he should begin to cut this meadow."
"That is a great pity," said the Grasshopper. "What a sad thing it was
that you laid your eggs on the ground!"
"Larks always do," said the poor little brown bird; "and I did not know
how to make a fine nest such as those in the hedges. Oh, my pretty
eggs!--my heart aches for them! I shall never hear my little nestlings
chirp!"
So the poor Lark moaned and lamented, and neither the Grasshopper
nor the Fairy could do anything to help her. At last her mate dropped
down from the white cloud where he had been singing, and when he

saw her drooping, and the Grasshopper and the Fairy sitting silently
before her, he inquired in a great fright what the matter was.
So they told him, and at first he was very much shocked; but presently
he lifted first one and then the other of his feet, and examined his long
spurs.
"He does not sympathize much with his poor mate," whispered the
Fairy; but the Grasshopper took no notice of the speech.
Still the Lark looked at his spurs, and seemed to be very deep in
thought.
"If I had only laid my eggs on the other side of the hedge," sighed the
poor mother, "among the corn, there would have been plenty of time to
rear my birds before harvest time."
"My dear," answered her mate, "don't be unhappy." And so saying, he
hopped up to the eggs, and laying one foot upon the prettiest, he
clasped it with his long spurs. Strange to say, it exactly fitted them.
"Oh, my clever mate!" cried the poor little mother, reviving; "do you
think you can carry them away for me?"
"To be sure I can," replied the Lark, beginning slowly and carefully to
hop on with the egg in his right foot; "nothing more easy. I have often
thought it was likely that our eggs would be disturbed in this meadow;
but it never occurred to me till this moment that I could provide against
this misfortune. I have often wondered what my spurs could be for, and
now I see." So saying, he hopped gently on till he came to the hedge,
and then got through it, still holding the egg, till he found a nice little
hollow place in among the corn, and there he laid it and came back for
the others.
"Hurrah!" cried the Grasshopper, "Larkspurs forever!"
The Fairy said nothing, but she felt heartily ashamed of herself. She sat
looking on till the happy Lark had carried the last of his eggs to a safe

place, and had called his mate to come and sit on them. Then, when he
sprang up into the sky again, exulting and rejoicing and singing to his
mate that now he was quite happy, because he knew what his long
spurs were for, she stole gently away, saying to herself, "Well, I could
not have believed such a thing. I thought he must be a quarrelsome bird
as his spurs were so long; but it appears that I was wrong, after all."

THE PRINCE'S DREAM
If we may credit the fable, there is a tower in the midst of a great
Asiatic plain,