“Oh, don’t be angry, or sneer at him,” said an old fairy, who was a famous inventor. “Stupid though he is, he and his wife have always been kind to us fairies. Leave him to me. I’ll put another idea in his head. For the sake of his people, I’ll teach him to turn the dial upside down, turn its face outward, and put hands and fingers on its face, with wheels inside and weights below. Then, he can always have what he expected, this evening, to do; and tell the time, at night, as well as by day.
“And I’ll make the new contrivance sing. No longer shall a timekeeper be called a bell, to strike or sound the hours. I’ll put a bird inside, to fly out and call out the hours.”
So the next night, the Queen of the Fairies took counsel of the owl, the wisest of all the birds, and also as fair-minded as a judge, who is just to all and the favorite of none. The owl decided that the cuckoo would serve best, and could be [[97]]most depended upon always to come out, flap its wings, and chirp out the proper numbers of the hours.
The Fairy Queen was surprised. “How can you, sir Judge, nominate a bird of bad character? The cuckoo is a pirate. Does it not lay its eggs in the nests of other birds? How often, besides stealing their homes, it throws out the eggs of the rightful owners, and, because of this robbery, the birdies die.”
“True, I have considered this,” said the owl, “but the cuckoo is a summer bird, that eats up the hairy caterpillars, which other birds will not touch. In this manner, it helps the trees to grow and the fruit to ripen, so that men have a clean country for the fairies to play in. Besides, in the courting season, you know it is the male bird’s love note, that sounds so sweetly, in April, May and June, and this song, ‘cuckoo, cuckoo,’ we all love to hear.”
The Queen of the Fairies pondered this answer. She was impressed with the owl’s wisdom, and, besides, she wanted all the fairies to love each other. So she concluded to invite the male cuckoo bird to be her model, for the new clock, that was to make Switzerland wealthy and famous. Surely, such clocks would be wanted, all over the world.
The land being rich in walnut trees, there was [[98]]no trouble in getting plenty of wood, dark and handsome, to be carved. So, appearing to old Soft Pudding, in a dream, the fairy queen said to him.
“Although we fairies all had a good laugh at you, when we saw you coming out of your house at night, with a lantern, to tell the time at the sundial, thus breaking up our party, yet because you have always been so kind to the birds, and loved our fairy folks, and the children, I will show you how to make a new kind of clock. It will not only mark the hours on its face, without the aid of the sun, but will send out a cuckoo, every hour, to flap its wings in delight. Then this wooden bird will call out ‘cuckoo, cuckoo,’ as if a real one in feathers were making love to its mate. Do you not, yourself, think that the affection of the lover bird, thus shown, will increase mutual affection in your own house and brighten every Swiss home, and many more homes, beyond the sea?”
“I am sure it will. Thank you heartily,” said Soft Pudding.
Then the Fairy Queen held out before his gaze a lovely cuckoo clock, made of black walnut, with hands and face-figures cut out of the wood of the white birch tree.