ONCE upon a time, a very long while ago, there was a little boy named Tatters, or at least, folks called him so. Nobody knew his real name, for, several years before, he had been left one winter day outside an old woman's door. The old woman didn't like children. She was very cross at first, but then she said, "He can work for me, if the worst comes to the worst."
This old woman was really a witch: and every day she grew still uglier and crosser, the more black magic she knew. Tatters did all the work, and got nothing but beatings and blame. Whether he did things wrong or right, she beat him just the same.
One day she went to gather various herbs and flowers, and she said, as she locked in Tatters, "I shall be at least two hours. Chop the wood, draw water, and clean the kitchen floor. And don't you touch the plants in the pots—I've told you that before."
These plants were in the window; one had a yellowish bloom and the other a pale pink blossom, with very sweet perfume. And when poor Tatters had done his work he went and stood by their side. He thought "they're the only nice things in the house," and when he thought that, he cried, and his tears fell on the plants in pots, on the yellow one and the pink and suddenly there was a crack and flash—and oh, what do you think? There stood two little fairy men, in pink and yellow and green, smiling very happily where the plants in the pots had been.
They said, "O, Tatters, you've set us free, and we'll help you now, if we can. Don't be frightened, we're your friends. Our names are Spick and Span. Do you know who you are, Tatters? You really were born a Prince, but you were stolen away from home, nearly nine years since."
Just then there came a tap-tap-tap, the sound of the witch's crutch. She saw the broken flower pots, and screamed "Have you dared to touch?" but before she could say another word, Span blew on her—puff! double-quick, and she found she couldn't speak or move. How she glared at him and Spick! Then they took her crutch, which was really a magic wand, and waved it, and said "Take us straight away to the Farthest Back of Beyond!"
And a beautiful Golden coach drove up, that very minute: and Spick and Span and Tatters immediately got in it. And they rode to Tatters' palace; you can just suppose with what joy the king and queen, his father and mother, welcomed their long lost boy! And Spick and Span went home, to the side of a fairy hill.
But the old witch stayed as they left her: and no doubt she stays there still.
May Byron.
