By and bye, came men and women, with babies and cradles, and boys and girls. They built houses and had happy homes. The fields were covered with grain, which the millers ground into flour, and then the mothers made bread and cakes, and crullers and doughnuts, and many other goodies. From the fruit trees, they picked pears and apples, and, from the bushes, blackberries and raspberries, to make jam and pies. From the cows, they obtained milk and cheese. Then, with pet dogs and cats, and horses and singing birds, and with every house full of children, all the people were very happy.
The men learned, from the glacier, not only how to crush grain and crack nuts, and to get food, but also how to cut and shape, and carve stone, so as to make beautiful houses, and castles, [[157]]and temples, and churches. Then, when they saw how fire turns clay into a hard substance like stone, they mixed the clay with water and moulded the soft paste into cups and dishes, and pretty forms, and these they often painted and decorated. In time, they adorned their houses and halls with statues and sculpture. Then, the artists and teachers of beauty were rivals in building beautiful cities.
Now, in our language, for Zaan and Klei, we say Sand and Clay. For millions of years, after the fairies of the Zaan and Klei had married each other and made the fertile soil, from which such wonderful things came out, many other fairies were calling on men to make use of them, also, as they had already done with Sand and Clay.
They wanted human beings to know that the fairies of snow and frost, of sunshine and thaw, of light and air, and the many inhabitants of the air were willing to be continually busy, like those of the Zaan and Klei.
This couple, the two married fairies, were not selfish or lazy. They, too, kept on calling to men who had no pretty gardens, or fertile fields, to help in bringing them together and give them a home. When this was done, the ground was no longer loose, blown about, piled into billows by the wind, as in the desert, or left hard and [[158]]dead, on the sea shore, or heaped up in dunes, in which no seed could sprout. But, when they mixed the clay and sand, there appeared the soil, that was soft, warm, rich and held the rain. So, wherever the seeds of wheat, or corn, or flowers, were dropped into the bosom of this new child of the clay and sand, called soil, the sun and showers made the seeds come forth as flowers, or fruit. One witty gentleman was so sure of what would happen, even on the prairies, that he said, “tickle the earth with a spade, and it will laugh a flower.” So the fairies called flowers “the smiles of the earth.”
It was out of the wedding of the fairies of the sand and clay, that beautiful Belgium was born—the country which the men and women living in it love so dearly, that they gladly die for it. In time of war, before the battle began, the knights and foot soldiers used to kneel down on the ground and kiss it. Then they prayed to be strong and brave, and vowed to defend their soil, from all enemies. How grandly they did it, we all know. [[159]]
XVII
THE ENCHANTED WINDMILL
Ever so many ages ago, there were a couple of fairies, who had a very interesting family of fairy children, that lived entirely in the air. The father was named Heet and the mother named Koud.