"Red sky at night
Is the fairies' delight;
Red sky in the morning
Is the fairies' warning."
"But there hasn't been a cloud as big as my thumb nail in the sky all day long," said the merry little fairy. "How can there be rain without clouds?"
The shoemaker nodded his head, went on with his work, and sang again:
"The clear blue sky
Means rain is nigh."
One hour before midnight when the big round moon lit up the fields and dells a rainbow troop of fairies in dainty gossamer robes and sparkling slippers came forth from their village in the hills for the midsummer night merry-making.
The dancing in a ring was the greatest sport. First they formed a circle standing very close together. Then, keeping time to the music of the fairy fiddler, who stood in the center, the little revellers danced round and round in a ring which grew larger and larger until the dancers could scarcely touch one another's tiny fingers. Peals of silvery laughter filled the air as they broke away from the ring and had a merry game of hide and seek or catch, until the fairy fiddler's music lured them back to the dancing ring.