FAIRIES I HAVE MET
"There's not much change in always looking at the sea—a great dull stretch of water!"
"Dull!" cried Laughing Sapphire angrily. "Dull, did you say? Not half so dull as being mewed up on a rock!"
"Why," said Sweet-of-the- Mountain, "you've no flowers, and no bees, and no——"
"And you," interrupted Laughing Sapphire, "have no glittering spray, and no forests of seaweed, and no creamy foam."
"You've no heather," said the land-fairy, as if that settled the matter.
"As for you," cried the sea-fairy, "I can't think of anything you have got! So there!"
They went on quarrelling in this way for some time, getting more and more angry. At last they agreed upon a very good way of settling the dispute. And this was their plan. Each of them was to go away for a certain length of time. On a particular day they were to meet again on the shore, at the edge of the ripples. Laughing Sapphire was to bring with him three treasures of the sea; and Sweet-of-the-Mountain was to bring three treasures of the land. The fairy whose treasures were the best would be the winner in the quarrel.
"But who will decide which are the best treasures?" asked the land-fairy.
"My friend the sea-anemone lives near here," said Laughing Sapphire. " As he is partly on land and partly in the sea, he will be able to judge fairly between us. He shall decide."
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