“The greedy girl,” said one. “She asks too much.”
“Her eyes are bigger than her waist! I expect she will cook and eat them,” said another, snappishly.
“Oh, if she had only asked for something else! What shall we do, to get our valentines around to the right people?” asked a slim fairy, that looked old.
One of the fairies seemed much frightened, as she said, “Surely the men will be very mad, and hurl ice chunks at us.”
And another almost scowled, as she answered, “And the girls will make faces and throw snow-balls at us.” [[128]]
These two spoke almost together, for both were very timid.
Other fairies, big and little, were getting ready to speak out their anger; for fairies never like the idea of human creatures ever being smarter than they are, or, in a way outwitting them.
The Fairy Queen waved her hand, and cried out: “Silence all! I shall get another pair of doves for my chariot; but these two, and the Belgian maid, shall be sent at once to her home. Obey me all!”
Now let us look at Belgic Land. For the first time, in all the history of the country, the sentinel upon the castle’s walls, at Ostend, saw coming a ship, on whose flag was the figure, not of a black raven, but of a white dove. And lo! when the ship drew near, they saw no shields of fighters hung on the side, nor the glint of any swords, or spears, and no armor, or anything that told of war. Instead of these, a lovely girl stood on the prow of the ship. She held up a cage, in which were two snow white doves.
Just then, the wife of the watcher on the castle walls cried out: