“And if you don’t get muddy, but pick your way nicely, we’ll go to the village shop and buy a pennyworth of sweets,” said Nurse the next day, when they started out for their walk. [23]“May I pick some primroses if I see them?” asked Peggy, dancing along.
There never were any on the high road, where Nurse generally chose to walk, but still there was always the chance there might be one day, and it was well to get permission beforehand.
“Yes, if you like,” said Nurse absentmindedly. She was very busy trying to see into a cab that had just passed, and didn’t really hear. Not that it mattered. There never were any primroses.
“There’s one—at least I fink there is!” said Peggy suddenly, when they had nearly reached the village. She stood on the edge of the ditch and peered up into the hedge. “Or is it a Fairy, perhaps? Do look, Nannie, it’s all white and shiny!”
“A Fairy indeed!” said Nurse, looking up too. “It’s an old bit of paper blown up there. Be careful, or you’ll be in the ditch!”
But she was too late, for Peggy lost her balance—or the side of the ditch gave way—and the next moment the two little gaitered legs were half hidden in dark brown muddy water!
“Very good!” said Nurse in a terrible voice. Then she dragged Peggy out, and walked her back along the road towards home, saying nothing in her most alarming manner.
Peggy really felt quite frightened.
“Nannie, you’re hurting my arm!” she said at last, trying to drag her hand away. She hated the dry feel of Nurse’s black cotton gloves pinched around her cold fingers. “Aren’t we going to buy any sweets after all?” she went on.
There was no answer.
[24]“Do you hear?” shouted Peggy desperately, and pulling harder.
“You should learn to do as you’re told,” said Nurse, taking a firmer grip, and walking faster still.
Peggy pulled harder still. She was beginning to feel really naughty. Besides, she knew it had been a Fairy, and who could think of stupid old ditches then? Nurse never understood.
“What have you got on your thumb?” asked Nurse, suddenly stopping, and dropping Peggy’s hand very quickly.
Peggy looked down, and there was the Fairy Ring sending out great sparkles of green light all over the muddy road! She could scarcely believe her eyes, and Nurse looked rather frightened.
Peggy felt there was not a second to lose.
“O Giant, I wish you’d take me away somewhere—and make Nurse nicer!” she whispered in a great hurry.
“You are a oner, you are!” said the Giant admiringly. “You nearly always ask for two things in one wish—but it never seems to matter—you get ’em! Now come along, we’ve got to hurry.”
Peggy and the Giant were walking along a wide silver road. The hedges, the gates, the trees, the flowers, even the birds that flew over their heads, were silver, all sparkling and gleaming in the light of a big silver moon in a blue sky. Peggy had never seen anything so beautiful, and she looked up at the Giant with very happy eyes as she danced along the road by his side.
“I shall always leave you to think of lovely places,” she said. “I should never have thought of coming here!”
“It’s the Ring as well,” said the Giant modestly. “But[25] we aren’t there yet. Sit on my hand; we shall get there quicker that way.”
“Why, where are we going?” asked Peggy, jumping up and holding on to his thumb.
“To Fairy-land,” said the Giant, stepping out briskly, “or at least to one little bit of it. It’s only as a great treat, because you couldn’t find a primrose, and never got your sweets. By the way, that was a Fairy in the hedge,” he added.
“I knew it was,” said Peggy. “But Nannie won’t see things sometimes. Oh, look! what is this coming?”
They had turned a corner, and saw far away above the hills something that appeared to be a great blue cloud edged with gold, advancing with a humming sound. As it came nearer Peggy discovered to her great excitement that it was really a multitude of Fairies all dressed in the palest blue dresses, their golden hair flowing out around them, and on their heads silver crowns studded with bright blue stones; and the humming sound was the rustle of their great blue wings which were bearing them along at a tremendous rate.
They made straight for Peggy, led by a tall, beautiful Fairy, whose blue dress was simply covered with sparkling stones. And there was something in her pretty smiling face which reminded Peggy of someone, but she couldn’t remember who. The next moment the Fairy was just above the Giant’s head; then she dropped suddenly, and catching Peggy up by the hand she and all the rest of the Fairies rose high in the air again and flew off by the way they had come.
Peggy clutched the Fairy’s hand very tightly for some time, for they were all going so fast that the rush of air made her feel quite breathless. But when she was rather more used to it, she turned her head to look at the[26] Fairies following, and suddenly saw that she had grown a magnificent pair of blue wings too!
She at once tried to flap them, and found she could do so quite well, though rather jerkily at first, and the Giant—who was striding along in the air just below her—looked up with a wide grin on his round face.
“Capital, capital!” he called out. “Well, how do you like flying?”
“It’s lovely!” shouted back Peggy. “You do think of splendid things! And so do you!” she added, looking up gratefully into the Fairy’s face.
And then she gave a great start, for, of course, she saw now who the Fairy was. She was Nurse!
Peggy gasped, and very nearly dropped right down. It was certainly Nurse, but Nurse looking happy, Nurse looking pleased with Peggy, Nurse seeming as though for once she was actually enjoying herself! It really seemed too good to be true, and Peggy darted another glance of great thankfulness down at the Giant.
“I’m glad you think it fun,” said Nurse, in a sweet, clear voice. “But you needn’t flap quite so hard. Look, give long, steady sweeps like this,” and she sprang forward even quicker into the air, and then showed Peggy exactly how it was done, till she had learnt perfectly.
The land was changing below them, or they were much higher up. It was sometimes bright and coloured like a rainbow, sometimes as red as fire, and sometimes so dark that they could see nothing below them. Once a terrible smell of smoke rose up, and Nurse called to everyone to mount higher.
“What a dreadful place that was,” said Peggy, when they once more saw the pretty rainbow land below them again. “Who lives there?”
[27]“Ogres,” said Nurse, “heaps of them. I hate passing their way, but it’s a short cut. That red country we passed just now was where the Dragons live. They’re even worse, nasty ill-bred creatures! However, we’ve passed them all now, and here we come down.”
They were right above a cleared space in a big black wood, and at a signal from Nurse, all the Fairies paused, and, half folding their wings, floated down amongst the trees. Peggy did so too, and balanced on a large branch, closing her wings up neatly as she saw the others doing.
“Now, each take a tree and begin,” called Nurse, who was flying about looking happier than ever, “and after that we’ll have some games!”
Then Peggy noticed what extraordinary trees they were all perched upon. For from every twig were hanging by silver strings the most fascinating little tiny sugar animals and birds of every colour and kind—blue elephants, mauve dogs, scarlet mice, yellow nightingales, and everything else you can think of. And all through the wood she could hear the Fairies calling and laughing to each other as they fluttered up and down the trees and ate the pretty things.
“May I?” asked Peggy, her fingers closing round a purple sparrow, and looking at Nurse who she hardly dared believe would be so changed as to allow her to eat as many sweets as she liked!
“Of course,” said Nurse smiling—and Peggy had never realised before how very nicely Nurse could smile. She also longed to tell her how pretty she looked with her golden hair all flying loose in the air. But she didn’t dare. “I advise you to try that pink cow just behind you,” went on Nurse. “No, not that one, the very big one by the trunk. That’s it. Now, isn’t that good?”
It was certainly too lovely for words. It had the[28] delicious taste that a strawberry ice has before you’ve eaten too many at a party, and it was also rather like pineapples and pear-drops and Tangerine oranges, and yet it was far better than any of them.
Peggy soon got quite good at half fluttering, half balancing along the branches like the others were doing, and trying each different sweet by turn.
(I’m afraid this sounds rather a greedy adventure of Peggy’s, but it wasn’t really, as it happened in Fairy-land, and there were enough sweets for everyone, and no one felt sick when they’d eaten too many.)
She had just bitten a pink sugar rabbit in half, and found it tasted just like meringues, when she remembered the Giant.
“Oh dear,” she cried, “where is the Giant? I’d quite forgotten him!”