s they are set free.

"And so that woman told me,--(Wand, you bend again, and I will turn at
your bending),--that woman told me how it was: for when the new king
was born, a black fairy with a smiling face came and sat within the
doorway. She had a spindle, and would always spin. She wanted to teach
them how to spin, but they did not like her, and they loved to do
nothing at all. So they turned her out.

"But after her came a brown fairy, with a grave face, and she sat on
the black fairy's stool and gave them much counsel. They liked that
still less; so they got spindles and spun, for they said, 'She will go
now, and we shall have the black fairy again.' When she did not go
they turned her out also, and after her came a white fairy, and sat in
the same seat. She did nothing at all, and she said nothing at all;
but she had a sorrowful face, and she looked up. So they were
displeased. They turned her out also; and she went and sat by the
edge of the lake with her two sisters.

"And everything prospered over all the land; till, after shearing-time,
the shepherds, because the king was a child, came to his uncle and
said, 'Sir, what shall we do with the old wool, for the new fleeces
are in the bales, and there is no storehouse to put them in?' So he
said, 'Throw them into the lake.'

"And while they threw them in, a great flock of finches flew to them,
and said, 'Give us some of the wool that you do not want; we should be
glad of it to build our nests with.'

"They answered, 'Go and gather for yourselves; there is wool on every
thorn.'

"Then the black fairy said, 'They shall be forgiven this time, because
the birds should pick wool for themselves.'

"So the finches flew away.

"Then the harvest was over, and the reapers came and said to the
child-king's uncle, 'Sir, what shall we do with the new wheat, for
the old is not half eaten yet, and there is no room in the
granaries?'

"He said, 'Throw that into the lake also.'

"While they were throwing it in, there came a great flight of the wood
fairies, fairies of passage from over the sea. They were in the form
of pigeons, and they alighted and prayed them, 'O, cousins! we are
faint with our long flight; give us some of that corn which you do not
want, that we may peck it and be refreshed.'

"But they said, 'You may rest on our land, but our corn is our own.
Rest awhile, and go and get food in your own fields.'

"Then the brown fairy said, 'They may be forgiven