By and by a faint, strange murmuring was heard afar off, like the
ringing of lily-bells to the touch of the honey-bees, growing louder and
louder, and coming nearer and nearer every moment. Rosebud turned toward
the sea with all the other fairies, and held her breath; and after a few
moments a fleet of little ships, with the most delicate purple and azure
sails, so thin that you could see the sky through them, came tilting
along over the sea as if they were alive,--and so they were,--and drew
up, as if in order of battle, just before the mouth of the cave; and
then a silver trumpet sounded on the shore, and a swarm of hornets
appeared, whizzing and whirring all about the cave; and then there was
another trumpet, and another, about as loud as you may hear from a caged
blue-bottle, and compliments were interchanged, and a salute fired,
which frightened the little lady-fairies into all sorts of shapes, and
made the little fairy-bride jump up and ask if her time had come, though,
to tell you the truth, the noise did not appear much more terrible to
Rosebud than her little brother's pop-gun; and then a sort of barge, not
unlike the blossom of a sweet pea in shape, was manned from the largest
of the fleet, and, when it touched the bright sparkling sand, out leaped
a little prince of a fellow, with a bunch of white feathers in his hat,
plucked from the moth-miller, a sword like the finest cambric-needle
belted about his waist, and the most unimpeachable small-clothes.
Pages:
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207