But look! look! what is coming? An army of eagles; and hark what flapping of wings! From the clouds the troop seems to come; the long quilled feathers of their far-spread wings glance like golden arrows in the sun; on the back of each bird is mounted one of the beautiful fairies of the upper air. The peacocks shut their tails and screamed in affright, and the golden eagles shrieked in defiance.
“Hence to your own dark domain!” cried the queen to the elfin band, as her royal bird pounced upon the king’s peacock, while all the other eagle-mounted fairies were giving a downward chase to the elves. “Quarter! quarter!” cried the king in a voice which reminded one of a pair of tongs endeavoring to bring harp tones out of a gridiron. The eagle had grasped the peacock’s head in his talons, and the poor bird struggled painfully. The king was hurled into the air, and followed his crown as it fell towards the earth, looking like a spider grasping at her ball of eggs. Rosa, too, slid from the smooth back of her steed; but she was caught by the queen and placed before her on the royal bird.
The eagle troop wheeled about, and rising in circles higher and higher, soon hovered near the pavilion. He on whose back the queen and Rosa were mounted, alighted on a golden ball which crowned the roof; here he stood a moment, glancing up at the sun, first with one eye, then with the other, and turning his golden neck about and quivering his great wings; then giving one shout of grand joy, he arose and wheeling about, softly descended and entered the pavilion, alighted and stood still while the queen dismounted with her charge. “Now let me eat with you, now let me look into the mirror and behold myself,” said Rosa. “The table is spread, thou seest,” said the queen, “but thou canst not yet partake with us; but thou mayest look into the blue water, and see all thou canst see.” And she led Rosa to the basin. And how Rosa’s heart beat as she looked in and beheld herself as painted on the blue, in the form of a lamb, white and woolly; but oh! sad deformity! a lamb with a peacock’s tail spread high over his head; what a monster was this. “Poor me,” thought Rosa, “I am a thing fit to be exhibited in the museum. What if my parents should think fit to exhibit me there, just for a punishment, and then after I am dead, set me up among the stuffed animals. But why should I be punished? have I not repented and reformed? and why does this tail adhere to me? This mirror is not quite true,” said she to the queen. “Thou hast done thy tasks well,” said the queen, “but thou hast told both thyself and others of it; yes, thou hast boasted; thou hast not been humble in thy joy.”
Presently it seemed to Rosa that she was in the museum, where a great concourse of people was collected, and all were staring at the lamb with a peacock’s tail and pointing and laughing. And then she was in a menagerie, where the showman was compelling her to show herself off, making her spread wide the wonderful tail, and leap bars, and pace round with a monkey on her back, and do many other silly things. Poor Rosa, in her mortifications she almost wished herself a serpent again. Then she seemed to be at home and all her brothers and sisters laughed at the peacock’s tail, and one of her brothers pulled some of the feathers out, and shook them in her face; but this she was glad to find was only one of her sisters who had come to awaken her, and was shaking a handkerchief in her face. “Be quiet, Charles!” cried Rosa, as she opened her eyes, “you are unkind to treat me so.” “Is sister Ellen unkind to come and wake you to go to walk on this beautiful morning?” “Oh dear! dear! I thought it was Charley pulling my feathers out, and it hurt me.” “Your feathers? why my silly chicken you are not yet fledged; come, downy nestling, up and dress, and let us go to walk.” “I am a lamb, only——but I will certainly be a lamb to-day.”
The next night Rosa stood in her dream by the pond where she was plucking lilies, and as she reached over, her happy face was to be seen in the water, but she did not see it, so full was her mind of the fair lilies; while she was smelling of one, she heard at a distance behind her the black troop, and the king called in a voice that sounded like the creaking of a cork when being drawn from the bottle, “throw down those horrible lilies; their breath is death and destruction; we cannot come, we dare not approach till thou hast thrown them away; they hate us from the bottom of their wicked hearts.”
“Dear lilies!” said Rosa, “then I will keep you as a safeguard, for you love me, I know you do; you say it with the sweetness of your breath. Yes, you love me, and I love you, and I will wear you in my bosom.” She placed them in her bosom, and as she bent her head to smell of one, she heard a very small voice, like the Æolian harp-tones of the fairy queen; they were so very faint, she thought they came from a distance. She looked around and above, but saw no fairies, nor elves neither, for the black troop, seeing her cherish the lilies, had vanished. The voice sounded a little louder, and said, “Rosa, dear child! love us and we will love you; do well, and we will always be with you to guard you; feel, think, or do ill, and you force us to leave you.” “Ah! is it the lily speaking? the voice comes from amongst the yellow central petals. No, it is the queen. She rises up from her beautiful couch.” “Wilt thou go with me to the pavilion?” said she. “Oh, take me with thee,” said Rosa, “and let me look into the blue mirror once more.” The queen touched the lily with her wand, and it was an ivory car of light and exquisite workmanship, and its cushions were of cloth of gold. Three pair of white doves were harnessed to it, and when Rosa and the queen were seated upon the golden cushions, the doves spread their wings, and as they beat the air, making a soft waving sound, onwards and upwards swiftly sped the beautiful coach and six, and soon amid the dove-colored clouds peered the dome-roof and pearly pillars of the pavilion. Silently the car rolled along through the rounded clouds, and when it reached the steps of the pavilion the six gentle steeds closed their wings, and uncurling their red feet, stood with arched necks and blinking eyes, while Rosa and the queen alighted. The queen then touched the car with her wand, and again the lily was there. It lay at her feet, and she picked it up and placed it in Rosa’s bosom. They entered the pavilion, where the feast was spread, and where the fairy train awaited the arrival of their queen. “See,” said the queen, “I have brought you a pretty guest. Eat with us,” said she to Rosa, “and then thou shalt go to the mirror.” And Rosa sat down and ate with them, and then with a heart full of doubts and fears, yet throbbing with joy and hope, she arose and went to the flower-wreathed basin. Oh, happy child! There on the sapphire ground was the pure white lamb looking her in the face, and no longer with the peacock’s tail, nor with any sign of the peacock about it; but wearing about its neck a wreath of beautiful flowers. The innocent lamb in her heart now bounded with joy. “Dear child,” said the queen, kissing her affectionately, “thou bearest the lamb in thy heart now, because thou hast not only done thy tasks well, but whenever a feeling of self-praise endeavored to steal in, thou didst strive to shut the door of thy heart against it, and didst humbly pray to be delivered from so deadly a foe to thine eternal peace.”
It seemed now to Rosa that she was in her own chamber, still wearing the form of a lamb, and she thought her mother came in, and seeing a pretty lamb wreathed with flowers, leaping about the chamber, smiled and cried out, “Oh, pretty creature! where didst thou come from?” And Rosa felt so frolicsome that she thought she would not tell who the lamb was, but ran up to her mother, and went leaping around her, and her mother caught the pretty lamb in her arms, and warmly caressed it. Then Rosa laughed to think how she was going to surprise her mother, and the laugh awoke her, and she laughed still more when she found she was really in her mother’s arms. “Ah, what is so funny, my love? have sweet spirits been with you in your dream? As I came and bent over you, a pleasant smile was on your lips, and when I kissed them, you laughed in your sleep.” “Oh, mother, I am a lamb! a happy lamb, for see the garland around my neck;” and she put her hand to her neck, expecting to feel the flowers. “Ah, no, but it was a sweet dream mother, and it shall be a true one, for I will be a lamb.” “Yes, my dearest,” said her mother, “the lamb is in your heart, I know, and its wreath of flowers shall not fade.” And the mother wept joyful tears as she pressed her child closely to her bosom, silently asking a blessing on her head. And the mother’s daily prayers, and the child’s constant endeavors to do well were not in vain, for Rosa became such a delight, such a blessing to all around her, that she gained the name of “Lammie.”
LILLA’S DREAM.
