They went singing and dancing over the meadows in the soft
afternoon sunshine, and thought how wise and clever they were to be
girls instead of little unnoticed flowers growing in a wood.
Presently they came to a house and stopped to ask whether they
could have a lodging for the night. There was no difficulty about
it, for that is a happy country where there is no money and
everything belongs to everybody, so the people of the house--an old
man and woman--were delighted to see the beautiful maidens and made
them heartily welcome, and the daffodils went to bed that night
very happy and quite content with the result of their experiment.
When they came to undress, however, they received a severe shock.
They were girls, real proper girls, they could chatter and eat and
sleep, for the fairy was not one to do things by halves; but when
they pulled off the dainty green shoes and stockings, they
discovered that although they had the prettiest little legs and
feet and toes in the world, they were quite green, the colour of
daffodil leaves.
There wasn't anything said about a "dear, darling, kind old fairy"
then, I can assure you.
The first daffodil said she was a wicked old witch. The second
said she was a horrible old woman; and the third said she knew the
fairy meant to pay them out, and she would like to scratch her.
Then they all set to work arguing and quarrelling and crying like
silly babies, when suddenly a familiar "Cuck-oo!" sounded in their
ears, and they saw our old acquaintance perched on the window sill.
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