Ten Little Fairies

With her and that she had no
one else to play with. The
fairies were very surprised at
this. Then, just at that
moment, there was a very sad
sigh from inside the cottage.
"What will happen to my
daughter, who does not know „
what to do with her ten fingers?
1 have made myself ill doing
all the work so that she had
nothing to do."

The ten little fairies peeped
into the cottage and saw a
woman lying in bed. She look-
ed very pale and worried.
"This poor mother is very ill.
Her daughter's laziness is



worrying her so much that she
cannot get better. We must
help her," they said. For a
few moments the fairies were
silent, while they thought about
the problem. Then one of
them said: "We must make her
daughter do something. There
are ten" of us — we will hide in
her fingers." Quickly they
jumped on to the little girl's
lap and she fell instantly asleep.

When she woke up her fingers
moved by themselves. They set
to work straight away. They
picked up a needle and thread
and sewed a torn dress and
mended a split pocket. The
little girl was very surprised to
find herself doing these things.
Happily she took the sewing to
show her mother. Then she
noticed that her mother's bed
was very creased and rumpled.
Immediately she set about mak-
ing her mother comfortable.
She plumped up the pillows
and smoothed the sheets. Her
mother was very surprised, but
very pleased. Before she could
say a single word, the little
daughter said: "I think I'll go
and get something for us to eat.
You'll feel better then." Both
the little girl and her mother
enjoyed the lunch. After they
had finished it the mother



turned to her daughter and
said: "Thank you very much,
you must have worked very
hard."

"I liked doing it. Working
is fun, it gives me something
to do," said the little girl. The
pots and pans were soon washed
and polished. As she polished
and swept, she sang. The
sound of her voice and the
way she was helping, made her
mother feel better. The little
girl's fingers seemed to work
all on their own.

That night, for the very first
time, the little girl felt really
happy. She fell asleep as soon
as her head touched the pillow.

One by one, the fairies crept



out of their hiding place and so
pleased were they with their
day's work that they began to
dance. Dawn was breaking
and, as they made their escape
through the window, they
passed sunbeams coming into
the room.

The mother soon got better
and from that day onwards
she would often say with a
smile: "My little ^girl has fairy
fingers." If you had passed the
cottage, you would have heard
the little girl singing happily
as she worked. Now that there
were two of them working, the
mother had time to play with
the little girl, so she was never
bored any more, thanks to the
ten little fairies.