ray was very fond of sugar. did you ever see the boy or girl who was not? one day he wanted a lump and asked mamma if he might have it. she gave him permission to take just one lump, so he raised the cover of the sugar bowl and peeped in.
“how nice it looks in there,” said ray, “i wish i could get inside.”
no sooner did he say the words than he began to grow smaller and smaller. he dwindled down until he was only as large as a lump of sugar and he gave a little jump right into the sugar bowl. at first it seemed quite dark in there, but after a while he grew accustomed to it and could see very well. the first thing that surprised him was the size of the place. he had always thought that the inside of a sugar-bowl91 was very small in area, but on the contrary it “stretched away into stately halls,” with doors and windows and numerous little people like himself walking about. ray sat on a little white sofa near a window and a dear little man came and sat beside him.
“i am the sugar-bowl fairy,” said the little man, “would you like to take a walk through the house?”
“thank you,” replied ray, “what do you do all day in the sugar-bowl?”
“we play and have a good time,” answered the little man, “except when the great giant comes, then we are all afraid and run to hide.”
“who is this great giant?” asked ray.
“i will tell you a true story about my brother and sister and then you will know all about the great giant,” said the sugar-bowl fairy.
“my sister’s name was sweetness and my brother’s was sugar-boy. one day they were put in a large barrel and taken away to the giant’s house. they remained in the barrel for several days, when one morning they were taken out and put in a beautiful silver sugar bowl on the giant’s table. in a few minutes the giant sat down to breakfast with his little daughter mabel.
“they talked and laughed together, and while the little girl drank her bowl of milk the giant poured a cup of tea for himself.
“‘now,’ whispered sweetness to my brother, ‘if he puts us in that cup of tea we must surely be drowned.’ she trembled and snuggled up closer to my brother.
“the giant took the silver sugar-tongs and looked into the sugar bowl. it was a moment of terrible suspense. all at once he caught sweetness and dropped her into his cup of tea. the last my brother saw of her she was dissolved in tears. and that was the end of my sister sweetness.
“‘won’t it be dreadful if he catches me?’ said my brother, when lo! the tongs descended into the sugar bowl again and this time caught sugar-boy, but he squirmed himself out and rolled down to the very bottom of the bowl and the giant took another.
“when breakfast was over and the giant and his little daughter had risen from the table, she whispered something to her father and all at once looked into the sugar bowl. then she put her dear little hand inside and caught my brother in her rosy finger tips.
“‘there,’ said mabel, ‘you’re the nicest looking lump of sweetness in the sugar bowl and i am going to give you to queen bess.’
“sugar-boy wondered who queen bess could be, but he did not have much time to think because mabel hurried out of the room and ran after her father. they went into a stable and sugar-boy could hear the tramp of horses. at last they stood before a beautiful black horse. mabel took the lump of sugar (which wasn’t a94 lump of sugar at all, you know, but my dear little brother) and held it up to the horse, saying, ‘see, queen bess, what i have brought you.’ my poor sugar-boy trembled with fear and thought his end was at hand, but just as the horse opened his mouth to swallow him the girl let sugar-boy fall and down he went into a tiny hole where it was very dark. he could hear mabel say, ‘that is too bad, queen bess, but i shall get another nice lump for you.’
“‘i hope i am safe here,’ said sugar-boy, but no sooner did he say the words than he saw two little bright eyes peering at him. again his heart went pit-a-pat, and in another moment a fat brown mouse came over to the dark hole. ‘this is a very lucky find,’ said the brown mouse, ‘i must take this lump of sugar to my mother.’ sugar-boy was frightened when the brown mouse caught him up carefully and started across the barn floor; and he was just beginning to think that this would be the last of him, when all at once a gray cat sprang out and the mouse dropped sugar-boy and ran for his life. there was sugar-boy in the middle of the floor where anybody could step on him and crush him to death.
“he was feeling very much worried about it when suddenly a boy came into the barn. the boy walked around whistling a lively tune, and all at once picked up sugar-boy and put him in his pocket.
“my brother thought he was safe in the boy’s pocket, at least for a while. he found himself in the company of a jackknife, ten marbles, two rusty nails, a ball of twine, a bent pin, a piece of tar, an old butternut and a few other articles that i cannot remember.
“‘i wonder how many more things are coming into this pocket,’ said the marbles, ‘we would like a little space to roll around.’ just then the boy put his hand into the pocket for the jackknife and those selfish marbles pushed96 sugar-boy out with the knife and he fell in the yard and the boy never knew it. my brother found himself beside a small stone, and he soon discovered that a certain mr. worm lived under the stone.
“he was very lazy, sleeping most of the time, but one day the stone happened to get overturned by a boy, and then mr. worm began to squirm around at a great rate. sugar-boy watched him until a dozen little sparrows began to chirp around him, and in a remarkably short time they had made a meal of mr. worm. but they had also seen sugar-boy, and as soon as they had eaten mr. worm they tried a peck at sugar-boy.
“they made a great fuss and scolded each other because they could not carry sugar-boy, he was so heavy. in the height of the excitement a great black crow flew into the midst of the sparrows, and, taking sugar-boy in her beak, flew far away. deep into the woods went the97 crow and perched on a high tree, and in another minute sugar-boy was in a nice warm nest with some little baby crows. they opened their mouths very wide and the mother crow began to feed them. she tried a peck at sugar-boy’s coat and he felt very badly about it. after a while she caught him up and one of the babies tried to take a little peck. it pleased the mother crow so much to see such a smart baby that she wanted to kiss the little mouth. she loosened her hold on sugar-boy and before she could catch him he had fallen from the nest in the high tree-top down to the path in the woods. he was there quite a long time when two girls came along gathering wood for their mother’s fire.
“‘o, see,’ cried one of the girls, ‘i have found a lump of sugar! i’m going to take it home to gretchen!’
“she put sugar-boy in the basket with her twigs and sticks and he was carried safely through the woods to their mother’s cottage. a plump little maid with two long braids of golden hair came running to meet the girls who had been gathering sticks.
“‘see what i found for thee, gretchen,’ said one of the girls, holding up sugar-boy. gretchen took him in her little fat hands and cried:
“‘ach! it is mine sugar.’
“‘the fairies put it in the woods for thee, gretchen,’ said her sister; ‘take it and run away.’
“gretchen ran away with sugar-boy, and sat in her little garden.
“‘if it is a fairy lump i will plant it,’ said the child, ‘and then a fairy tree will grow with lumps of sugar.’
“she dug a tiny hole with her hands and placed my brother in it, covering him over with the soft earth. then she watered her new bed and went away to tell about her fairy sugar tree.
“now it so happened that not far from the99 spot where sugar-boy was planted lived a colony of ants. one long-legged fellow chanced to see gretchen dispose of a nice lump of sugar and he ran to the hill where the queen of the ants lived and told her about it.
“she sent an army of faithful ants at once, and sugar-boy was removed little by little to the queen’s palace.
“then the queen decided to give a grand party, inviting all her sisters, cousins and ants and in a short time the long-legged fellow was despatched with written invitations that read as follows:
“‘the queen invites you to be present at a grand dinner party, given in the courtyard of the imperial palace (ant hill—southwest) on monday at ten a. m.’
“there was great excitement among the ants when they learned about the party and they vied with each other in their efforts to thank the queen. when the morning of the party arrived you might have seen swarms of ants hurrying to the palace on ant hill.
“of course they all had a splendid time at the party and they actually devoured sugar-boy.”
the sugar-bowl fairy, who had been telling this story, stopped suddenly and ray asked, “is that all?”
“no, that is not the end,” replied the fairy, “but i hear your mamma calling you.” he raised the cover of the sugar bowl and ray climbed out.
as soon as he was outside he began to grow to his normal size and he ran to mamma and told her all about his adventure inside the sugar-bowl.
