Sylvie and Bruno were supposed to be the fairies that teach children to be good, and to do this they wandered pretty well over the earth in their fairy way. Somehow we miss the real children through all their dainty play and laughter, but the pictures of the two children, by Harry Furniss, are beautiful enough to make us really believe in fairies. There is a question Lewis Carroll asks quite gravely in his book—“What is the best time for seeing Fairies?” And he answers it in truly Lewis Carroll style:
“The first rule is, that it must be a very hot day—that we may consider as settled: and you must be a little sleepy—but not too sleepy to keep your eyes open, mind. Well, and you ought to feel a little what one may call ‘fairyish’ the Scotch call it ‘eerie,’ and perhaps that’s a prettier word; if you don’t know what it means, I’m afraid I can hardly explain it; you must wait till you meet a Fairy and then you’ll know.
“And the last rule is, that the crickets should not be chirping. I can’t stop to explain that; you must take it on trust for the present.
“So, if all these things happen together, you have a good chance of seeing a Fairy, or at least a much better chance than if they didn’t.”
Later on he tells us the rule about the crickets. “They always leave off chirping when a Fairy goes by, ... so whenever you’re walking out and the crickets suddenly leave off chirping you may be sure that they see a Fairy.”
Another dainty description is Bruno’s singing to the accompaniment of tuneful harebells, and the song was a regular serenade:
Rise, oh, rise! The daylight dies,
The owls are hooting, ting, ting, ting!
Wake, oh, wake! Beside the lake
The elves are fluting, ting, ting, ting!
Welcoming our Fairy King,
We sing, sing, sing.
Hear, oh, hear! From far and near
The music stealing, ting, ting, ting!
Fairy bells adorn the dells
Are merrily pealing, ting, ting, ting!
Welcoming our Fairy King,
We ring, ring, ring.
See, oh, see! On every tree
What lamps are shining, ting, ting, ting!
They are eyes of fiery flies
To light our dining, ting, ting, ting!
Welcoming our Fairy King,
They swing, swing, swing.
Haste, oh, haste, to take and taste
The dainties waiting, ting, ting, ting!
Honey-dew is stored——
But here Bruno’s song came to a sudden end and was never finished. Fairies have the oddest ways of doing things, but then Sylvie was coming through the long grass, that charming woodland child that little Bruno loved and teased.
The artist put all his skill into the drawing of this tiny maiden, skill assisted by Lewis Carroll’s own ideas of what a fairy-girl should look like, and the fact that Mr. Furniss took seven years to illustrate this book to the author’s satisfaction and his own, shows how very particular both were to get at the spirit of the story.
Indeed, the great trouble with the story is that it is all spirit; there is no real story to it, and this the keen scent of everyday children soon discovered.