Enys Tregarthen

“ Betty went down the wood with that music in her soul, and begged every thrush she heard singing to give her a note of his song.
Whether every bird’s heart was also full of gladness for the freckled blue eggs in its dear little nest we cannot say, but they all gave willingly of their best, and before the child had gone through Trevillador Wood, the bottle of Small People’s crystal was full to the neck with thrush-music. ”

“ I told you but yesterday that I had no gold to give you,’ said the little voice. ‘Surely you do not love money more than you do kindness and pity? And you are going to commit an unkind deed—for it will be an unkind deed if you sell me for gold. Woe is me!’
‘But the purse belongs to the Spriggan King,’ said Gerna, as if to excuse herself. ‘I shall be only giving him what belongs to him.’
‘That is quite true. But I do not belong to him; [24] I belong to my Mammie and Daddy and my own little True Love, whom I shall never, never see again if you take me to Piskey Goog. ”

“ One day, when she was almost worn out with rubbing, she saw a faint glow come into the stone, which, as she rubbed harder and quicker than ever, grew brighter and brighter, until it lay in her hand as red as a poppy.
‘The stone is all afire!’ she cried, taking it to the Wise Woman.
‘It is the colour of life at last,’ said the ancient dame, gazing at it with her wonderful bright eyes; ‘and another spell loosened to the witch’s undoing,’ she muttered, half to herself. ”

“ You don’t look a bit old, nuther.’
‘You thought I should look as old as your Great-Grannie, didn’t you?’ laughed the happy little creature. ‘The Small People show their age by looking younger and fairer—at least, the royal fairies do.’
She got on her feet as she spoke, and gazed over the great moor, and as she gazed, her face, which had the delicate pink of a cowry-shell, grew more beautiful, and a tender, happy light crept into her speedwell-blue eyes. ”

“ Gerna did as she was told, and stood on a high bank of fragrant thyme at the head of the hoary old granite stone, with its great hole, her face towards the sunrising.
She herself was very quiet, as was also the little prisoner, but all the great wild moor was now full of [49] music. The linnets were already twittering in the bushes, and many larks were high in the sky, singing to greet another dawn. As they sang, the east grew more and more beautiful, and behind the great Tors the sky was a wonderful rose on a background of delicate gold. ”

“ But as we are anxious to show we are not ungrateful, we will give thee the greatest of all gifts—the eye to see all that is good and beautiful in human hearts, and the power to bring it out, which alone will make thee greatly beloved. We will also teach thee to love the lowly grass as we ourselves love it, and the humble herbs, and all the gentle [55] flowers, which make all the common roadways, moors and downs, so fragrant and beautiful. We will reveal to thee all their charms, virtues, and healing properties, so that Gerna, the maid of Polzeath, may be a blessing to her parish. ”

“ The old crone came in, lighted her pipe, and took away Tuesday!
‘Mind the old Witch o’ the Well don’t come and take you away like she did Monday and Tuesday,’ the children were saying to each other when Betty came back from her fruitless search for Monday.
‘What! has the bad old witch come and taken away Tuesday?’ cried the Little Mother. ‘Dear! what ever shall I do now? I can’t find Monday, and now my poor little Tuesday is gone!’
She rushed across the road to the well where the old witch was sitting, as before, calmly smoking her pipe. ”

“ When you have put me into the sea a wave will bring to your feet a little red ball, which will contain my ears and my eyes, and which you must take to the Wise Woman, who will keep them until sunrise to-morrow.’
Bessie Jane carried the little sea-fairy very carefully down the sandy beach in the shrimping-net, and when she had put her into the sea, the water all around her broke into white fire, and a soft, sweet sound, like the coos of young pigeons, filled the air; [177] and then, as the brightness enclosed the tiny creature, she disappeared—ears, eyes, and all! ”

“ It will comfort you to know that you won’t find even a stick, and that before the north wind has turned his back on the downs, the Wise Woman will have died of the cold, and you will cry your eyes out for wings to fly up my stairs!’ And cackling and jeering, she disappeared, and Betty saw a gray hare running away over the snow down to Music Water, now as silent as the downs themselves.
The little maid was returning to the hut with an icicle of despair at her heart, when a white dog ran across her path, and looking down, she saw it was Pincher, the witch’s dog. ”

“ The next morning, when she awoke, she saw the Wise Woman at the door of the hut with the stone in her hand, and she heard her chanting: ‘Go the way thy sisters went—the way of the west wind, and ask the King of the Wee Folk to give thee permission to help in the undoing of an evil wrought by the Witch o’ the Well;’ and Betty, staring with all her eyes, saw the ancient dame fling the stone out on to the down, along which it rolled at a rapid rate, burning as it went with a rosy splendour. ”

“ Looking after a house was not in little William John’s line, and Great-Aunt Ann had not been gone more than an hour before he found himself at the [193] small wicket-gate opening into the orchard, where to his joy he saw a great multitude of golden-headed daffadillies rising out of the lowly grass, and a light that was softer than silver moving mysteriously in and out amongst the trees. ”

“ It was a great surprise to Bessie Jane that the fairies should know about her kindness to poor Old Annis; and as she did not like being praised, she turned the conversation, and asked the dear little sea-sprites to tell her all about themselves, and what they did all day long, where they lived, and a hundred and one other questions which the sweet-voiced, sun-beamed little creatures seemed only too pleased to answer. ”

“ I am so glad you can. It is so nice to have someone to talk to. Nobody hardly ever speaks to me here, and I have felt so lonely.’
‘Poor boy!’ said the little White Hare; ‘I can sympathize with you, for I know what it is to be lonely and have nobody to speak to. You are the first human being who has spoken to me since a wicked Witch turned me into the shape of a hare.’
‘What! Are you not really a hare?’ asked little William John, more and more amazed.
‘The small White Hare suffered him to stroke its fur.’
‘No,’ answered the little creature sadly ”

“ But you need not fear Farmer Vivian on my account. He, of all persons, would not hurt any of the Good Small People for a king’s crown, much less me.’
‘He is getting smaller!’ exclaimed Gerna. ‘Why, he is a teeny, tiny Farmer Vivian now! Ah, dear! how queer everything is! Everything is queer an’ funny since I picked up that purse with the rings ‘pon it an’ dear little you inside.’
‘Cannot you guess who he is?’ asked the little fairy, her lovely wee face more tender than the June sky over them. ”

“ She is quite as anxious that the Wise Woman should die as you and I are for her to live. She is as clever as she is vile, and she knows that a woman over a hundred could not possibly live long in awful weather like this unless she has a good fire to keep her warm.’
‘But why does she want the Wise Woman to die?’ asked the little maid.
‘Because she fears the wisdom of her long years can help you to fly up her stairs. ”

“ For the Shoes were taking them up a rough, steep road behind their cottage.
‘Yes, quite right; the Shoes know the way—trust them for that! Don’t worry about anything; only hold me as close as you can to your warm little heart. We shall have to warm each other when we come to the bog country. It is bitterly cold there.’ [42]
On and on Gerna went with her precious burden, through long lanes, up and down steep hills, over sandy commons and furze-brakes, and so fast that she could not have spoken even if she wanted to! ”

“ The poor animal in the Pail could not have looked more wretched if he was to be made into a pasty there and then, and he cried in his terror, and the three little hares on the doorstep lifted up their small voices in sympathy.
The latter’s wails were more than Joan’s tender heart could stand.
‘Poor little things!’ she cried, looking first at the small Long-Ears and then at Ninnie-Dinnie. ‘If he [100] will promise to do what you want him, I’ll set him free. ‘Tis hard they should suffer for their wicked old daddy’s wrongdoing.’
‘It is,’ responded the child in her gravest manner. ”

“ There was no moon, and Gerna had to dress in the dark. It was soon done, and, with the moss-green Shoes on her feet, the ring-printed bag and the wee Lantern close to her heart, she went down the stairs and out into the night.
There was not a sound to be heard save a weird cry somewhere away on Pentire, which the little voice coming up from the bosom of her frock said was Hager howling because his subjects were telling him that he must now give up all hope of ever taking to wife his poor little prisoner. ‘You must not be afraid of whatever sounds you hear,’ continued the little voice. ”

“ You know, don’t you, that the little brown kiskey of a man promised they would give me a bag full of gold if I took this purse to their place. Will they?’
‘It all depends,’ answered the little voice. ‘The Spriggans—all those little Dark Men you saw on the sands were Spriggans—are dreadful storytellers, and they never keep their word unless they are obliged to. If they cannot get this purse without having to pay heavily for it, they will give you what they offered. Do you want to be rich, dear little maid?’ it asked anxiously. ”

“ The Wise Woman neither looked nor spoke to her until the sun sank down behind the downs, when she told her to return the bag to its place in the settle, and then get her supper and her own and go to bed.
‘I have only got one little feather to put on the table,’ said poor little Betty, when she had put the bag back into its place.
‘You have done better than I feared,’ said the Wise Woman quietly. ‘It is something to have untangled even one feather from its companions. ”

“ She also told her all the news Gelert had brought up from the beach, and of Farmer Vivian selling his cottage.
‘There isn’t a word of truth about his selling your cottage,’ said the little voice indignantly. ‘He is far too kind to turn an old woman and two little children like you out of your home. It is because he is good that the Spriggans are afraid of him and speak of him so unkindly.’
‘But if it should be true,’ persisted Gerna, ‘will you give me a purseful of golden money if I don’t take you to the goog?’
‘How quickly you forget, child! ”

“ The downs, in spite of all the bird-music, were not so beautiful nor so full of colour as when she came to stay with the Wise Woman. They were now as brown as Piskey-purses, she said, and only lightened here and there by granite boulders, where [137] they caught the rays of the sun, by yellow gorse, and splashes of silver lichen.
It did not take the girl very long to cross Music Water’s full stream to reach the road that parted the two downs; but it took her some time to get to Crackrattle, as the way up to it was thick with brambles and furze. ”

“ She is very clever and wise, she said, and used to make simples for sick folks. She is terribly old now—a hundred and twenty, I think she told me.’
‘That or more,’ said the dog. ‘But aged as she is, she is not too aged to work a kindness for anybody that asks her, particularly if it be against the Witch o’ the Well.’
‘Will she help me to get wings, do you think?’ asked Betty eagerly. ”

“ This will break the spell and set me free.’
‘What a terrible lot for a little maid to do!’ cried Gerna. ‘I don’t believe one will ever be found to do all that, however kind she is.’
‘That is just what Hager believed,’ said the voice sadly. ‘And yet I was once hopeful that such a dear little child would be found, or rather would find this purse with its helpless prisoner inside, and take compassion on me. ”

“ I and my little companions were playing Buck and Hide Away here in the bay when the tide was in, and as I was hiding under the rock in the pool where you netted me, the tide went out and left me behind. You see that great bar of sand’—pointing at it with her tiny pink finger, which was even a more delicate pink than the beautiful tamarisk [175] blossom that makes Tamarisk Lane and all the other lanes near Harlyn Bay so pretty in the summer and autumn months—‘it is a terrible thing to us little sea-fairies,’ as Bessie Jane nodded. ‘We have not the power to get over sand-bars. ”

“ You will be sorry all your days you have lost your opportunity to be rich, and you will find you cannot even keep the thing which you have found.’
There was a heavy ground sea that day, and the waves were so huge that Gerna had to go farther up the beach out of their reach, and when she turned to see what the Dinky Men were doing, she saw them all slinking into Piskey Goog like whipped dogs. ”

“ Yet, fortunately for those poor shut-up little maids, it is not quite impossible; but it will depend on yourself, whether your love and pity for your little friends is strong enough to do all that is required of you.’
‘I’ll do anything if I can only get wings to fly with, and see Monday, Tuesday, and the others again,’ broke in Betty, with all a child’s eagerness.
‘Alas! the will that is strong and eager to do is often weakened by the flesh that is frail,’ said the Wise Woman, with a shake of her head ”