Chapter 8
the pixie flower of english fairy tales the pixie flower once upon a time there lived in devonshire two serving damsels called molly and sabina who were very fond of ribbons and finery when their mistress scolded them for spending more money than they ought upon such things they said the pixies were very kind to them and would often drop silver for their pleasure into a bucket of fair water which they placed for the accommodation of those little beings in the chimney corner every night before they went to bed once however it was forgotten and the pixies finding themselves disappointed by an empty bucket whisked upstairs to the maid's bedroom popped through the keyhole and began to exclaim aloud against the laziness and neglect of the damsels now sabina who lay awake and heard all this jogged her fellow-servant and proposed getting up immediately to put things straight but molly lazy girl who liked not being disturbed out of a comfortable nap pettishly declared that for her part she would not stir out of bed to please all the pixies in devonshire the good-humoured sabina however got up filled the bucket and was rewarded by a handful of silver pennies found in it the next morning but long ere that time had arrived what was her alarm as she crept towards the bed to hear all the elves buzzing like so many angry bees
and consulting as to what should be done to the lazy lazy lass who would not stir out of bed for their pleasure some proposed pinches nips and bobs others wanted to spoil her new cherry-coloured bonnet and ribbons one talked of sending her the toothache another of giving her a red nose but this loss was voted much too bad a punishment for a pretty young lass so tempering mercy with justice the pixies were kind enough to let her off with a lame leg which was to plague her for seven years and was only to be cured by a certain herb growing on dartmoor its long and learned and very queer and difficult name the elven judge pronounced in a high and shrill voice it was a name of seven syllables seven being also the number of years decreed for molly's lameness sabina good-natured maid wished to save her fellow damsel so long a suffering tried with might and main to bear in mind the name of this strange herb she said it over and over again tied a knot in her garter at every syllable as to help to memory and thought she had the word just as safe and sure as her own name and very possibly felt much more anxious about retaining the one than the other
at length she dropped asleep and did not wait until the morning now whether sabina's head was like a sieve that lets out as fast as it takes in or if the over-exertion to remember only caused her to forget cannot be determined but certain it is that when she opened her eyes she knew nothing at all about the matter except that molly was to go lame on her right leg for seven long years and thus an herb with a strange name could be got to cure her and lame molly went for nearly the whole of those seven years at length about the end of that time sabina and molly went out into the fields early one morning to pick mushrooms when a merry squint-eyed queer-looking boy started up all of a sudden just as molly went to pluck a fine big one and came tumbling head over heels towards her he held in his hand a green herb with a tiny yellow flower which some say was called enula helenium and he insisted upon striking molly with it on the lame lake from that very moment she got well and lame molly became the best dancer in the whole town when she and sabina danced at the feast of may-day on the green the
