| Some fairies once lived in a dark glen
in a pine forest. They were real fairies,
many of them not higher than a pin.
Their greatest treasure was a magic cap which
had been in the fairy family for many generations.
The most wonderful thing about the cap was
that it fitted exactly any one who wore it.
When one fairy put it on, he and all the others
became invisible.
A stupid race of giants lived among the mountains
near them. They wanted the fairy cap more than anything
else in the world.
One warm day when the elves were away from
home, a giant came into the glen. He was seeking just such
a cool place for his afternoon nap.
He was so large and the glen so small that
when he lay down he almost filled the valley.
The music of a fairy brook soon lulled him
to sleep.
Perhaps you have heard how a giant snores,
and how his breath comes in great puffs.
The giant was snoring and puffing when the
fairies came towards home.
They heard the strange sound and thought a
great storm was brewing.
“There has never been such a wind in
the glen,” said the fairy queen.
“We will not go down into it. We must
seek shelter for to-night on this hillside.”
Just then they came to the giant’s ear.
“Here is a fine cavern,” the queen
said, and she stopped and waved her wand.
A fairy hastened forward to carry the cap
to a safe place in the cave, for that was always their first
care.
Just then the giant awoke.
He raised his great head.
Oh, how miserable the fairies were!
They wept and moaned until even the dull ear
of the giant heard them.
It was a sound like the tolling of tiny silver
bells.
He listened and understood what the wee voice
of the prisoner in his ear was saying.
He was the wisest and most kind-hearted of
all the giants.
He helped the little creature gently out into
his hand, and looked at him wonder.
He had never before seen a fairy.
In vain the brave little fellow tried to conceal
the precious cap.
The giant saw the wonderful star and knew
at once that he had the treasure cap of the elves.
He set the fairy carefully upon the ground,
and shouted for joy as he found that the cap exactly fitted
his own great head.
The poor fairies could no longer see him,
but they heard a sound like thunder, as he hurried over
the stones towards his home.
They were now afraid to move about while the
sun shone.
They crept under leaves and into shells and
cried bitterly.
By sundown every plant in the glen was wet
with tears.
The sharp eyes of the eagle on the mountain
top saw them and a great pity filled his heart.
“I must help the fairies,” he
said, “otherwise I should not be worthy to be called
the ‘king of birds’.”
He went directly to the home of the giants
and demanded the cap, but they refused to give it up.
All that an eagle could do, he did, but as
the giants wore the invisible cap he could not see them.
He could only hear their great voices.
He knew however that the giants were proud
of their size and strength, and liked, above all things,
to be seen.
He was sure that they would not wear the cap
in battle, and he did not lose hope.
One day they carefully placed it under a large
stone on the mountain side below them.
The keen eye of the eagle was watching.
He flew fearlessly to the spot as soon as
the giants had left it.
He lifted the stone in his great talons, and
was soon flying away with the cap to the fairy glen.
The giants saw him, and knew at once what
he was doing.
They began a fierce attack upon him.
The air was filled with flying arrows and
sharp rocks. Drops of blood fell on the mountain side, and
many feathers fluttered down, but the brave eagle was soon
out of their reach.
He did not stop until the cap was safe in
the fairy queen’s lap.
There was great rejoicing among the fairies
that day.
They had a feast in the eagle’s honor,
and healed his wounds with fairy magic.
On the mountain side, wherever the blood and
feathers fell, there sprang up trees with featherlike leaves
and blood-red berries.
All the giants, fairies, plants and animals
knew why they grew.
The unselfish love in the eagle’s blood
could not die, but lived again in the beautiful trees.
But people who did not know how they
came there, called them mountain ash trees.
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