“These extraordinary happenings gave me a great idea. Calling to my aid the idling Winds, I said to them, ‘Take from me these glorious notes; spread them far and wide; leaving some where’er you sink to rest, and giving some to all who care to take them. Be swift, and see to it that your task is well performed!’
“Happily the winds were willing to obey my orders; and so, to the uttermost ends of the Universe there was taken a measure of Music’s notes. And to every class and kind of living thing was offered a share. A very few refused the munificent gift, and so spend their lives in stony silence.
“But the great majority accepted, some, the singers, to improve their voices; others, the players upon instruments, to add to the deftness of their fingers and the delicacy of their touch; others, again, such as the Nightingale, the Bul-bul, and the Skylark, to fill the night or morning with their glorious mother melodies, to the great delight of all who pause to hear!”
Thus ended the Story, and so was brought to a happy conclusion the ceremonies and the entertainments connected with the marriage festivities.
The Band then struck up the Fairies’ National Anthem, and as all stood up whilst King Waratah and Queen Wattle Blossom passed slowly and smilingly down the room, there began for the Royal couple such a wonderful career of love and happiness that even to this day it is the pride and joy of Austral Fairyland! [[119]]
“They, the children of the sky,
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
To the moon—their mother—came one happy summer night.”
[[121]]