The Blue Bird Part 3

TYLTYL You're rather like our neighbour, Madame Berlingot....

THE FAIRY (_growing suddenly angry_) Not a bit!... There's not the least likeness!... This is intolerable!... I am the Fairy Berylune....

TYLTYL Oh! Very well....

THE FAIRY You will have to start at once.

TYLTYL Are you coming with us?

THE FAIRY I can't, because I put on the soup this morning and it always boils over if I leave it for more than an hour.... (_Pointing successively to the ceiling, the chimney and the window_) Will you go out this way, or that way, or that way?...

TYLTYL (_pointing timidly to the door_) I would rather go out that way....

THE FAIRY (_growing suddenly angry again_) That's quite impossible; and it's a shocking habit!... (_Pointing to the window_) We'll go out this way.... Well?... What are you waiting for?...

Get dressed at once.... (_The_ CHILDREN _do as they are told and dress quickly_.) I'll help Mytyl....

TYLTYL We have no shoes....

THE FAIRY That doesn't matter. I will give you a little magic hat. Where are your father and mother?....

TYLTYL (_pointing to the door on the right_) They're asleep in there....

THE FAIRY And your grandpapa and grandmamma?...

TYLTYL They're dead....

THE FAIRY And your little brothers and sisters.... Have you any?...

TYLTYL Oh, yes; three little brothers....

MYTYL And four little sisters....

THE FAIRY Where are they?...

TYLTYL They are dead, too....

THE FAIRY Would you like to see them again?...

TYLTYL Oh, yes!... At once!... Show them to us!...

THE FAIRY I haven't got them in my pocket.... But this is very lucky; you will see them when you go through the Land of Memory.... It's on the way to the Blue Bird, just on the left, past the third turning.... What were you doing when I knocked?...

TYLTYL We were playing at eating cakes?...

THE FAIRY Have you any cakes?... Where are they?...

TYLTYL In the house of the rich children.... Come and look, it's so lovely. (_He drags the_ FAIRY _to the window_.)

THE FAIRY (_at the window_) But it's the others who are eating them!...

TYLTYL Yes; but we can see them eat....

THE FAIRY Aren't you cross with them?...

TYLTYL What for?...

THE FAIRY For eating all the cakes.... I think it's very wrong of them not to give you some....

TYLTYL Not at all; they're rich.... I say, isn't it beautiful over there?...

THE FAIRY It's no more beautiful there than here.

TYLTYL Ugh!... It's darker here and smaller and there are no cakes....

THE FAIRY It's exactly the same, only you can't see....

TYLTYL Yes, I can; and I have very good eyes. I can see the time on the church clock and daddy can't...

THE FAIRY (_suddenly angry_) I tell you that you can't see!... How do you see me?... What do I look like?... (_An awkward silence from_ TYLTYL.) Well, answer me, will you? I want to know if you can see!... Am I pretty or ugly?... (_The silence grows more and more uncomfortable_.) Won't you answer?... Am I young or old?... Are my cheeks pink or yellow?... Perhaps you'll say I have a hump?...

TYLTYL (_in a conciliatory tone_) No, no; It's not a big one....

THE FAIRY Oh, yes, to look at you, any one would think it enormous.... Have I a hook nose and have I lost one of my eyes?...

TYLTYL Oh, no, I don't say that.... Who put it out?...

THE FAIRY (_growing more and more irritated_).

But it's not out!... You wretched, impudent boy!... It's much finer than the other; it's bigger and brighter and blue as the sky.... And my hair, do you see that?... It's fair as the corn in the fields, it's like virgin gold!... And I've such heaps and heaps of it that it weighs my head down.... It escapes on every side.... Do you see it on my hands? (_She holds out two lean wisps of grey hair_.)

TYLTYL Yes, I see a little....

THE FAIRY (_indignantly_) A little!... Sheaves! Armfuls! Cl.u.s.ters! Waves of gold!... I know there are people who say that they don't see any; but you're not one of those wicked, blind people, I should hope?...

TYLTYL Oh, no; I can see all that isn't hidden....

THE FAIRY But you ought to see the rest with as little doubt!... Human beings are very odd!... Since the death of the fairies, they see nothing at all and they never suspect it.... Luckily, I always carry with me all that is wanted to give new light to dimmed eyes.... What am I taking out of my bag?...

TYLTYL Oh, what a dear little green hat!... What's that s.h.i.+ning in the c.o.c.kade?...

THE FAIRY That's the big diamond that makes people see....

TYLTYL Really?...

THE FAIRY Yes; when you've got the hat on your head, you turn the diamond a little; from right to left, for instance, like this; do you see?... Then it presses a b.u.mp which n.o.body knows of and which opens your eyes....

TYLTYL Doesn't it hurt?...

THE FAIRY On the contrary, it's enchanted.... You at once see even the inside of things: the soul of bread, of wine, of pepper, for instance....