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Show Fairy lyJk Conner ? K vir- OX-EYED DAISIES One day, some years ago, a little fairy, hopping about, thought she 1 Sill She Hopped Up on the flower, on Top. The sun kept on cracking jokes. The wind kept on whispering them. And the fairy joined in the laughter of the flowers. The fields were full of laughter and sunshine and sweet whispers whis-pers that day. Hut after a while the sun grew tired. "It Is time for me to rest," he said. "And the flowers must be quiet, too," said the wind, as he began to move. "I suppose I must be going, too," said the little fairy. She half-flew, half-jumped from the flower and alighted on the ground, which was really hardly more than a step, even though the fairy was very tiny. But when she got down to the ground, to her horror she saw the mud spots in the center of the beautiful, kind, yellow flower. "Oh," whatever shall I do?" she cried. From a little distance away the Fairy Queen came rushing. She had heard the voice of the little fairy, and she felt sure it sounded troubled and worried. "What is the matter?" asked the Fairy Queen. "I was playing in the mud," explained ex-plained the little fairy. "I came to bear the jokes the sun was cracking and I stood on this flower. "The flower didn't mind, but now I have made it muddy in the center." "We shall fix that," said the Fairy Queen. She gave a long call, and from everywhere ev-erywhere appeared countless little fairies. Then she bent over the flowers' and whispered to them : "Is it all right?" she asked. They nodded their heads. Then the Fairy Queen said: "The flowers tell me that they would all like to have would take a rest on an ox-eyed daisy dai-sy growing in a field. She bad been wading in a tiny stream and her feet were covered with cool, soft mud ! She hopped up on top of the glorious glor-ious yellow flower. Her feet were held close together and she stood very straight, her wings holding her up a great deal, for she did not want to bear too heavily mm 111 black centers. They "Oh, Whatever think it makes a Shall I Do?" good color to contrast con-trast with their deep golden shade. "So every litflo fairy must go mud-wading mud-wading and each one come to spring on a flower, keeping right in the center." cen-ter." Soon they were back, and every fairy, hopping on a flower, gave it a I black center. The flowers were delighted. From that day to this all the flowers flow-ers called ox-eyed daisies have had black centers so that very, very often they are called black-eyed Susans. |