But alas the fairies who told me this story, have left these questions unanswered, at all events for the present, so I can only guess at the conclusion.
I think myself that Green Ears was pretty sure to succeed in his quest, because if you want a thing intensely enough, you can usually get it.
They would make a rather funny married couple, that is true, and we will hope that Green Ears did not turn head over heels on his marriage day.
But the fairies assure me that the trials necessary to pass through in order to become a mortal, have a very sobering effect on the character, and so we can think of Green Ears as quite different, though still fascinating and charming.
I would have liked to be present at their wedding, wouldn't you?
| "O joy when on this solid earth |
| Is heard the sound of fairy mirth! |
| O joy, when under earthly things |
| Is heard the sound of fairy wings, |
| When the impossible is true, |
| When I come back and marry you!" |
THE OLD KING
Walter had been playing with his kite in the garden. Somehow or other it would never mount properly, unless his father was there to help him. It was apt to fly up a little way, and then to fall into a bush or fence, and there to perch like a big bird, until Walter and his friends rescued it with difficulty. But on a windy day when his father took him into the open fields, away the kite would sail, until Walter grew anxious lest it should disappear altogether in cloudland.
It was a fine afternoon, about three o'clock, a lazy, sleepy time of day. A queer jumble of all the fairy stories that the boy knew, passed through his head as he sat on the lawn, day-dreaming, while his kite flapped its wings on the ground beside him.