Three times they had danced in the ring; three times they had frolicked among the grass blades in the merry games of hide and seek and catch, when suddenly they noticed a dark shadow fall on the green dancing rings.
Wistfully they peered at the sky to see what was the matter. Soft clouds were sailing right across the moon's face and the next moment a few pattering raindrops began to fall, and the fairy shoemaker, who had brought his work out into the fields (he never joined in the sport), sang out in a high, ringing voice:
"A clear blue sky
Means rain is nigh."
The fairies all knew what he meant for he had sung the same little rhyme several times during the day when they had rejoiced about the promise of a clear, moonlight night.
"What shall we do?"
"Where shall we go?" asked the tiny creatures, for the raindrops were beginning to fall faster.
"See how the cowslip bells are bending. Perhaps they mean to shelter us," said the fairy queen.
In a twinkling groups of fairies fled to the stalks of cowslip tufts. One after another each crept quickly into one of the hanging bells of the flowers, and there they nestled softly, safe from the pattering raindrops, which fell faster and faster in a midnight summer shower. How cosy they were, cuddled up in the golden bells which swayed gently to and fro as light breezes touched them. So delighted they were with these lovely cradles that they sang one of their sweetest melodies when the clouds disappeared and the full moon again flooded the meadow with light.
The fairies did not forget the service of the friendly cowslip bells. They gave the flower a new name—the fairy-cup—and always in their midsummer night's revel, at a sign from the fairy queen, they stop dancing for a few moments, creep into the bells of the cowslips, and sing their sweetest melody of Fairyland.