MOTHER. Now little Boy-green, I’ll leave you here. The sun is high and the sky is clear. Dear little lad in your coat of green! Prettiest laddie that e’er was seen!
WITCH. [_Muttering._] Green cloak, Fairy folk! Green cloak, Fairy folk! [WITCH _hobbles slowly off_.]
MOTHER. [_Bending over the boy and putting her arms around him._] Fairies! You hear what the old witch said? I wish I had dressed you in blue instead! ’Tis the fairies’ color you wear to-day, So be careful not to go far away! Don’t let the fairies capture you, Or they’ll make you into a fairy too. A beautiful fairy you’d surely make, But your mother’s heart, it would surely break, So, little Boy-green, stay here and play, And Mother will not be long away.
[MOTHER _goes out, looking back wistfully now and again at the little boy. When she is out of sight, the boy sits down in the grass with a toy that she has given him. After a pause, a fairy peeps out from behind a distant tree or bush, then another and another, then many—ten or twelve or more—stealing cautiously forward toward the open grassy spot. They begin to sing, very softly_:]
We are the fairy folk, We are the airy folk, We are the folk of the flowers and the trees. We are the wary folk, Sometimes contrary folk Hid in the dew and afloat on the breeze.
[_By this time they have reached the open, where they join hands and dance in a circle, singing_:]
This way and that way we skip and we prance, This way and that way we turn in our dance; Here-a-way, there-a-way, darting our glance, Searching for mortals our band to enhance.
[_They break up into two groups, and take the next lines antiphonally._]
Little mortals clad in white— Pretty sight! Little mortals clad in blue— Pretty too! Little mortals clad in pink— Need not shrink. Little mortals clad in red— Have no dread. But little mortals clad in green— No more seen! No more seen! Little mortals clad in green— No more seen!
BLUEBELL. [_Stepping forward, and pointing toward the little boy._] Hist! Look there!
ALL. So do I, so do I, so do I! Let’s fly!
[_They start to run back among the trees, but are checked by the next speech, and draw slowly forward again._]
Fairies! Have you seen? He is clad in green! He is ours if we can lure him— One of us if we secure him! He is clad in green! He is ours, I ween.