These are the first words he heard, for she spoke softly and very low, while he walked at her right hand, and the other Jack on her left:
“And so now I have no wings. But my thoughts can go up (Jovinian and Roxaletta could not think). My thoughts are instead of wings; but they have dropped with me now, as a lark among the clods of the valley. Wand, do you bend? Yes, I am following, wand.
“And after that the bird said, ‘I will come when you call me.’ I have never seen her moving overhead; perhaps she is out of sight. Flocks of birds hover over the world, and watch it high up where the air is thin. There are zones, but those in the lowest zone are far out of sight.
“I have not been up there. I have no wings.
“Over the highest of the birds is the place where angels float and gather the children’s souls as they are set free.
“And so that woman told me—(Wand, you bend again, and I will turn at your bending)—that woman told me how it was: for when the new king was born, a black fairy with a smiling face came and sat within the doorway. She had a spindle, and would always spin. She wanted to teach them how to spin, but they did not like her, and they loved to do nothing at all. So they turned her out.
“But after her came a brown fairy, with a grave face, and she sat on the black fairy’s stool and gave them much counsel. They liked that still less; so they got spindles and spun, for they said, ‘She will go now, and we shall have the black fairy again.’ When she did not go they turned her out also, and after her came a white fairy, and sat in the same seat. She did nothing at all, and she said nothing at all; but she had a sorrowful face, and she looked up. So they were displeased. They turned her out also; and she went and sat by the edge of the lake with her two sisters.
“And everything prospered over all the land; till, after shearing-time, the shepherds, because the king was a child, came to his uncle, and said, ‘Sir, what shall we do with the old wool, for the new fleeces are in the bales, and there is no storehouse to put them in?’ So he said, ‘Throw them into the lake.’
“And while they threw them in, a great flock of finches flew to them, and said, ‘Give us some of the wool that you do not want; we should be glad of it to build our nests with.’
“They answered, ‘Go and gather for yourselves; there is wool on every thorn.’