o lovingly were very sorry for her
grief, and shook their heads gently in the breeze, till their fragrance
filled the air, and stole softly round the weeping fairy. But though
they comforted, they could not help her. Presently she rose, and glided
swiftly through the tall grass, till she reached the flower where the
blue robed fairy was resting after her day's work.

"Oh, sister Blue Bell," she cried, "I have lost my wings! Where shall I
get another pair, that I may fly back to fairy-land with you and my
sisters when our work is done?" Then Bluebell shook her head
sorrowfully, till all her sweet bells chimed--"I am sorry! I am sorry!"
but she could not help her sister Violet.

"Perhaps Cowslip will know," she suggested.

But Cowslip bade her try what Woodsorrel would say, and Woodsorrel
thought perhaps Kingcup might know, so Violet went about from one to
another, till she was ready to cry again with vexation.

Then all the fairies gathered round her and tried to comfort her.

"Let us ask the owl that sits in the hollow oak," said the gentle
Anenome, gliding to Violet's side; "he must be very wise, for he never
smiles, and seldom speaks more than three words at a time."

So that night, when the moon lit her silver lamp in the sky, instead of
dancing, as was their wont, with the elves upon the greensward, they all
repaired to the hollow oak to seek an audience of the owl. They had to
repeat their errand two or three times before he understood it, for the
owl was as slow of understanding as he was of speech, and then, having
nodded his head solemnly for five minutes, and winked and blinked for
quite ten, he said solemnly:--

"Try the King of the Fire Spirits!"

After which he relapsed into silence, and obstinately refused to say any
more. Then the Fairy Violet bade farewell to all her friends, and set
out on her journey to the King of the Fire Spirits. She had a long way
to go, for the Fire-King held his court in the very centre of the earth,
and she might have lost herself in the dark passages had not the
glowworm lent her his lamp. She had saved him once when a hungry bird
would have carried him off in her beak, and from that time the glowworm
had loved the gentle fairy, and always burned brightest when she was by.

The Fairy Violet travelled very quickly, scarcely touching her feet to
the ground, but passing onward with a swift gliding motion that was very
beautiful; still it was three days and three nights bef