“Although there were many provinces, and, notwithstanding, that all the tribes and people [[250]]were not interested each in the same things, yet they saw the wisdom of union for defense and growth. So, feeling that they must have a flag, to express their loyalty to the king, their regard for law, and their fixed resolution to be free, they voted to have one standard, containing the colors of Brabant. So, when the tricolor, black, yellow and red, was raised high in the air, before all the freemen, they clanged their swords on their shields and shouted ‘Long live the King, forever be law, eternal our independence.’ So these became the national colors of Belgium.
“Centuries afterwards, when William the Silent, whose statue stands today in Brussels, led the Netherlanders against the tyrant, there was embroidered, on his banners, the figure of a pelican feeding her young with blood from her own bosom, with the Latin motto, ‘Pro rege, pro lege, pro grege’ (for the king, for the law, for the commonwealth). And when in 1830 the national hymn, The Brabançonne (The Brabanter) was composed, which every Belgian sings, the three-fold theme and burden of the throbbing lines was what the tricolor and the precious stone suggest. Black was for steadfastness, wisdom and prudence in the king; yellow for law, which protects industry; and red, for Belgium’s unconquerable liberty, secured by the blood of her sons. Oh! how they sang it, and never with more meaning [[251]]and spirit than, during the four years of the ‘nation’s Calvary,’—1914–1918.”
Forthwith, the people of Belgic Land, having heard the stories of the Fleur-de-lys, and of the opal, there was formed by them a Society to Make Fairy Tales Come True, and for generations they, and their children have lived up to their name.
The story-teller has often said that nothing that fairies can do, or ever have done, can excel what he has seen in the wonders wrought in the soil, and on the Belgian and Dutch landscapes.
As a youth, he saw many square miles of worthless heath land, as sandy as a desert, on which even rabbits could not find food to live upon. Or, two of them might fight for one blade of grass.
In later life, the story-teller went into the same places. What magic! There were villages, farms, schools, churches, happy homes, barns stored with grain, and many signs of joyous abundance, cows, sheep, orchards and fields.
What did it mean?
The story of “The Marriage of the Fairies,” explains in part how it came to pass. Water, brought in canals; that is, irrigation, wrought wonders; but, most of all, human continuance of toil, in unity of heart and will! Today the industry [[252]]and perseverance of men and women have made Belgium as one of the wonders of the world.
“By concord little things become great.” So, they sing in the national hymn, and under their flag, of black, yellow and red, which stand for king, law and liberty:
“Let us work; our labor increases