The fairy flute

THE FAIRY TAILOR

Reading edition

Sitting on the flower-bed beneath the hollyhocks

I spied the tiny tailor who makes the fairies’ frocks;

There he sat a-stitching all the afternoon

And sang a little ditty to a quaint wee tune:

“Grey for the goblins, blue for the elves,

Brown for the little gnomes that live by themselves,

White for the pixies that dance upon the green—

But where shall I find me a robe for the Queen?”

All about the garden his little men he sent,

Up and down and in and out unceasingly they went.

20Here they stole a blossom, there they pulled a leaf,

And bound them up with gossamer into a glowing sheaf.

Petals of the pansy for little velvet shoon,

Silk of the poppy for a dance beneath the moon,

Lawn of the jessamine, damask of the rose,

To make their pretty kirtles and airy furbelows.

Never roving pirates back from Southern seas

Brought a store of treasures home beautiful as these.

They heaped them all about him in a sweet gay pile,

But still he kept a-stitching and a-singing all the while:

“Grey for the goblins, blue for the elves,

Brown for the little gnomes that live by themselves,

21White for the pixies that dance on the green,

But who shall make a royal gown to deck the Fairy Queen?”