From The Wish Fairy of the Sunshine and Shadow Forest by Alice Ross Colver; Henry Altemus Company, Philadelphia, 1919; pp. 5-12.
ONCE upon a time, before people had learned to love canary birds, and their sweet, sweet songs, they used to fly freely through the Sunshine and Shadow Forest. At that time they did not have the beautiful golden color we know, but they were a brownish-gray.
One day little Miss Canary Bird felt very venturesome. She decided to fly to the edge of the Sunshine and Shadow Forest, and peep out at the wide world and see what 6 strange and wonderful things lay outside. She had heard that people lived out beyond the forest. She had never seen people and she was curious to get a glimpse of them.
So she started on her way. It took her seven days and seven nights to reach the outside edge of the great Sunshine and Shadow Forest, but at last she perched wearily on a low branch of the farthest-out tree and looked at the world.
The first thing she saw was a ploughed field, with the earth all turned up brown, instead of green-covered. Then she saw two horses being driven across the field, with something big and noisy dragging behind them. It looked queer to her to see horses with harness on, walking, for in the Sunshine and Shadow Forest the horses always ran free and wild. The two horses neighed a greeting to her and told 7 her to go back, or she’d be caught and made a prisoner like themselves.
But Miss Canary Bird saw something else queer, and she wanted to get a closer look. What she saw was a two-legged thing walking along and driving the horses. She had never seen a man before, and she looked and looked till the horses and the noisy thing and the two-legged thing were close to her.
Then the two-legged thing walked up to her softly. She sat still, too frightened to fly, till he reached out his big hand to touch her. Then with a scared peep she flew up, but what do you think?
She flew right into his hat that he held over her, and there the man had her, tight and fast.
Miss Canary Bird fluttered and fluttered, and cried and cried, but 8 the man kept his hat over her, and just talked and talked to her till she grew quiet.
Then he took her a long, long, way across the field to a big house that she guessed was his home. Here he called his wife and showed her tiny Miss Canary Bird, and the two of them slipped her quickly into a bright gilt cage, that hung in front of a window, and locked the wee door.
Poor little Miss Canary Bird was very unhappy. The man and woman never let her out, and, though they gave her good things to eat, she hated not to be able to fly and get out in the sunshine. All day long she hopped from perch to perch, and never sang a note of her sweet, sweet song.
“She’s bewitched,” the man said to the woman. “The fairies have laid a spell on her. I’ve heard her sing lots of times as 9
I’ve ploughed near the forest. We must wait until the spell is lifted, and then she will sing.
But Miss Canary Bird knew better.
“I miss the forest and my friends and my flying,” she thought, sadly, “but, most of all, I miss the sunshine. It comes in this window for only a little while in the morning. I wish — oh, I wish — I could keep some with me all day!”
Now, did you know there lives a Wish Fairy in this old world? She doesn’t always make wishes come true, but she believes a great, great many wishes, if granted, do no harm and give happiness; so, often when she hears them, she waves her magic wand and — first thing you know, the wish has come true!
She heard little Miss Canary Bird’s wish and straightway she 11 waved her wand, and what do you think? When the sunshine came the next morning it rested on little Miss Canary Bird, and she spread open her feathers and wings and stretched herself, and took a regular sun bath. Then she closed her eyes and took a nap in the warmth of it.
When she woke the sun had moved on, but somehow her cage seemed brighter. She wondered what it was. It seemed as though there was still sunshine there. She tipped her head and looked all about, and finally looked down at herself.
Behold! She was no longer brownish-gray like the shadows, but a beautiful golden color like the sunshine.
“Oh!” she cried, and she was so happy that she hopped to a perch and began to sing her sweet, sweet song. The man and woman 12 came running, and stood in silent wonder, looking and listening. At last the woman spoke in a whisper:
“She’s changed her color! See! The spell is lifted, she’s pure gold — turned since I left her this morning. The fairies have been here, true enough. Listen to her song!”
The man whispered back:
“The fairies have been here, surely. They must have flown by and touched her, for never before was she golden. It’s good luck to have a fairy bird in your house. We’ll take good care of her.”
And, when little Miss Canary Bird heard that, she tipped up her yellow head and sang and sang more happily than ever.