The Wonderful Fairies of the Sun/The Rainbow Fairy

by Ernest Vincent Wright

“When, out of her home in a Star,
This beautiful goddess came riding.”

THE RAINBOW FAIRY.

THERE once lived a beautiful Fairy,
Who floated around in the sky.
She was always inventing new wonders
To please or astonish the eye.
As soon as she finished one notion
She’d start again, hunting around
All over the sky to discover
What new things there were to be found.

It happened one day to be raining.
When out of her home in a star
This beautiful Goddess came riding;
But hadn’t progressed very far
When she met an ambitious young Sunbeam;
And, resting a while on a wall,
She told him she’d lately discovered
The greatest invention of all.

The Moon was this Goddess’s workshop,
And up there they wended their flight.
Then she gave him a dozen small Raindrops
And asked him to shine them up bright.
He scrubbed and he rubbed, till he had them
So bright they were all of a glow;
And ere the good Fairy perceived it
He’d shined up a hundred or so.

“And they stuck all those Raindrops together
In the form of a beautiful arch.”

The Fairy was simply delighted,

And called in more Beams to his aid
Till at last, after hours of scrubbing,
A million bright drops they had made.
The Big Bear brought in the Big Dipper,
Having filled it with mucilage and starch;
And they stuck all those Raindrops together
In the form of a beautiful arch.

Then high in the heavens they hung it;
And the Earth, from a promise she’d made,
Sent up hosts of artists to paint it
In every conceivable shade.
Each separate color was given
By a different child of the Earth,
And their richness and skill of their blending
Is a proof that they knew of its worth.

The violet and indigo colorings
Were sent by the Deep Rolling Seas,
The blue from the Lakes and the Rivers,
The screen from the Grasses and Trees.
The Sunset sent red in abundance,
While out of the Desert’s fierce heat
Came tintings of orange and yellow,
Which made the invention complete.

“Sent up hosts of artists to paint it
In every conceivable shade.”

By this time the rain was most over,

And the Sun saw the beautiful bow,
And sent over thousands of Sunbeams
To light it and keep it aglow.
But the Fairy had fears that the colors
Might fade in such powerful light,
So she only displays it in showers,
When the Sun doesn’t shine very bright.