-tempered
bird, and he wants a wife."

"Hush!" said the pretty brown Lark. "I want to hear the end of that
wonderful song."

For just then the Skylark, far up in the heaven, burst forth again, and
sang better than ever--so well, indeed, that every creature in the field
sat still to listen; and the little brown Lark under the foxglove leaves
held her breath, for she was afraid of losing a single note.

"Well done, my friend!" exclaimed the Grasshopper, when at length he
came down panting, and with tired wings; and then he told him how much
his friend the brown Lark, who lived by the foxglove, had been pleased
with his song, and he took the poor Skylark to see her.

The Skylark walked as carefully as he could, that she might not see his
feet; and he thought he had never seen such a pretty bird in his life.
But when she told him how much she loved music, he sprang up again into
the blue sky as if he was not at all tired, and sang anew, clearer and
sweeter than before. He was so glad to think that he could please her.

He sang several songs, and the Grasshopper did not fail to praise him,
and say what a cheerful, kind bird he was. The consequence was, that
when he asked the brown Lark to overlook his spurs and be his wife, she
said:

"I will see about it, for I do not mind your spurs particularly."

"I am very glad of that," said the Skylark. "I was afraid you would
disapprove of them."

"Not at all," she replied. "On the contrary, now I think of it, I should
not have liked you to have short claws like other birds; but I cannot
exactly say why, for they seem to be of no use in particular."

This was very good news for the Skylark, and he sang such delightful
songs in consequence, that he very soon won his wife; and they built a
delightful little nest in the grass, which made him so happy that he
almost forgot to be sorry about his long spurs.

The Fairy, meanwhile, flew about from field to field, and I am sorry to
say that she seldom went anywhere without saying something unkind or
ill-natured; for, as I told you before, she was very hasty, and had a
sad habit of judging her neighbors.

She had been several days wandering about in search of adventures, when
one afternoon she came back to the old oak-tree, because she wanted a
new pair of shoes, and there were none to be had so pretty as those made
of the yellow snapdragon flower in the hedge hard by.

While she was fitting on her shoes, she saw the Lark's frie