yellow-green fairy tale book

Chapter 15 The Adventures of Little Maya (2)
"Oh, you don't have to start thinking about it so early," began the old field mouse, "the people on the ground have a saying that if the days start to grow longer, it will be colder. Although it is getting warmer outside now , but the snow will fall at any time, every winter. You will be glad you are here instead of outside. However, I dare say that for a young person like you, it is really too much here. Quiet." Then it said, "I've invited Mr. Mole, our neighbor, to visit. He's been sleeping for months, but I hear he's awake now. If he takes a fancy to you, it's yours." It's a pleasure. The only pity is that it is blind and cannot see how beautiful you are." When she heard that it was blind, Maia was really happy because she didn't want to marry the mole.

The Mole kept his promise and came to visit the field mouse, but Maya didn't like him at all.The mole may be rich and learned, but he hates the sun, green trees, and flowers, which Maya loves dearly.

To be honest, as a blind person, it has never seen these things.Like many others, it thinks that what it doesn't know is not worth knowing.But Maya's story aroused his interest, although he tried his best not to let Maya see it.It really likes her voice, especially when she sings:
Mary, Mary, it's amazing, how is your garden so beautiful?

or:

Say goodbye obediently, baby in the tree.

But though the Mole admired her singing, he told her that the words were all nonsense, and that trees and gardens were all stupid things.If she had been his wife, he would have taught her something more valuable.

"Meanwhile," it said proudly, "I dug a passage under this house that would lead to my house, but I must remind you that a large animal fell from a hole in the top after it died, and lay on its back. In the passage, don't you be frightened!"

"What kind of animal is it?" Maya asked impatiently.

"Oh, I really can't tell you," replied the Mole indifferently, "it's covered with something soft, and has two thin legs, and a long, pointy thing growing on top of its head. "

"It's a bird," Maya cried happily, "I like birds, it must have been frozen to death!" Maya cried again, "Oh, kind Mr. Mole, please take me to see it , okay?"

"Come on, I'm going home anyway," replied Mr. Mole, and called the old field mouse to go with them.

"Here it is," said Mr. Mole. "By God, I'm so thankful God didn't make me a bird. They don't talk but chirp, and when it's cold they freeze to death."

"Ah, yes, a useless thing," replied Mrs. Field Mouse.While they were talking, Maya quietly walked up to the swallow, stroked its feathers, and kissed its eyes.

All night she did not sleep, thinking of the dead bird lying in the passage.Finally, she couldn't bear it anymore, she got up secretly, went to the place where the hay was piled up, and wove a thick blanket.Then she went to Mrs. Field Mouse's storehouse and got the cotton she had picked up from the swamp in the summer.She took them all to the passage, put cotton pads under the swallows, and covered it with thick blankets.

"Maybe you sang to me in the summer," she said, "I wish I could bring you back to life again, but now, I can only say goodbye to you." Stick it on the swallow's chest.She seemed to feel the faint heartbeat of the swallow on her cheek.Yes, that's right, it was indeed the sound of a heartbeat.The swallow didn't die, it just lost consciousness from cold and hunger.Thinking of this, Maya hurried back to Mrs. Field Mouse's house, and brought back some grains of wheat and filled the leaves with a little water.Ma Ya held these things close to the swallow's mouth, and the swallow opened its mouth subconsciously, took a sip of water, and she sent the wheat grains into its mouth one by one.

"Keep quiet, or people will find out you're not dead," she said. "I'll bring you more food tonight, and I'll ask Mr. Mole to mend that hole, and say it was me. It will be cold when you pass through the passage. See you now." Then she went back to the house of Mrs. Vole, who was already sleeping.

After several days of careful care by Ma Ya, Yanzi gradually regained her strength and was able to speak.It tells Maya how she got to this cave.At that time the swallow was too young to fly very high, so he stabbed his wing among the rose bushes, so that when his family and friends migrated to warmer places, he could not keep up with them.

During the migration of the swallow group, they have not noticed that their little companions have not kept up.Eventually, exhausted, the little swallow fell to the ground and must have rolled into the hole to reach the passage.

Fortunately, both Mr. Mole and Mrs. Field Mouse thought it was dead, so they didn't bother it.When the spring returns to the earth and the sun is shining, when the forest is full of blue hyacinths, and when the hedges are full of yellow winter jasmines, it has grown as tall and strong as a big swallow.

"It was you who saved my life, my dear little Maya," said the swallow, "but it is time for me to leave you," it added, "unless you are willing to let me leave this darkness behind your back." cell."

Upon hearing this proposal, little Maya's eyes lit up, but she still shook her head resolutely.

"Yes, you must go, but I must stay," she replied. "Mrs Vole has been good to me, and I can't just leave her like this. Do you think you can open the hole yourself?" she asked anxiously. "Better start now, if you can. Because we're going to dine with Mr. Mole tonight, and my foster mother won't know you've dug the hole."

"That's true," replied the swallow.So they flew to the top of the cave - after all, the top of the cave was not too high from them.It began to try to open the hole with its mouth, and soon, a ray of sunlight shot into the dark hole.

"Are you sure you won't come with me, Maya?" said the swallow.Although Maya was full of longing to see the green trees and flowers, she still replied:

"No, I can not."

That brief glimpse was all the sunlight Maya had seen all this time, and it was because the wheat had grown so fast and so densely around the hole and around the house that no sunlight could get in.Yet while she thinks about her bird friends all the time, she doesn't have any spare time.Because Mrs. Field Mouse told her that she was going to marry Mr. Mole soon, and asked her to keep spinning to make a wedding dress.As she had never made a dress, Mrs. Vole called four clever spiders and spent several days in the ground weaving wool and cotton into clothes.Maia liked that dress very much, but she hated the thought of the blind mole, she just didn't know how to get away from it.When night fell and the spiders wanted to go home to rest, she would send them to the mouth of the cave, and always wait until a breeze blows away the ears of wheat and sees the sky.

"If only the Swallow could come now," she said to herself, "I will follow him to the end of the world, but he never will."

"Your dress is ready," said Mrs Field Mouse to her one day when the berries were red and the leaves were turning yellow:

"Mr. Mole and I have decided to marry you in four weeks."

"Oh, don't go so fast! Don't go so fast!" Maya burst into tears.This made Mrs. Field Mouse very angry, and said that she was more sensible than any girl, and didn't know what was good for herself.Later, Mr. Mole came, and he carried Maya to see the new house he dug for her.The house was so deep under the ground that there was no way Maya's tiny legs could support her crawling back to Mrs. Vole's house, where she could still see at least a little sunlight.As time approached, her heart became heavier and heavier.The day before her wedding, she quietly climbed up to the field full of stubble, wanting to see the sunset for the last time and bid farewell to it.

"Farewell, farewell," she said, "and farewell to my little Swallow. Ah! If he knew I missed him, he would come to my aid."

"Cha! Cha!" A voice came from her head, and the swallow flapped its wings and flew to her side.

"You look sad, are you really going to marry that ugly mole?"

"It's a relief that I'm going to die soon," she sobbed.

"Come! Come! As I say, get on my back! I'll take you to a sunny place where you'll soon forget there's such a thing as a Mole."

"Okay, I'll go." Maya said happily.

The swallow tore a stalk with her mighty beak, and let her use it to fasten herself securely to its wing.So they set off.They fly, fly, keep flying south.

Oh, how happy Maya is to see this beautiful land again.Several times she wished Mr. Swallow would stop, but it always said the best was yet to come.So they went on and on and on, stopping only now and then for short rests, until they came to a place full of tall white marble columns.These tall stone pillars are surrounded by emerald green vines, and countless swallows are poking their heads out to look out, while other swallows are stretched and lying in the sea of ​​white, yellow or blue flowers.

"I live there." Mr. Swallow said, pointing to one of the tallest stone pillars, "but such a house is not suitable for you, because you will fall to your death if you fall from it. You just choose one of the flowers below Well, you can have it, and sleep curled up under its leaves all night."

"I want that one," Maia replied, pointing to a white star-like flower with a crown of red and yellow flowers in the center and a long slender stem swaying in the breeze. "It is the most beautiful of all flowers, and it is full of fragrance." So the swallow flew to the flower with Maya.As they drew nearer to the flower, they saw a little figure with a crown on his head and wings on his shoulders, standing firmly on the leaf. "Ah, that's the king of flower elves," Swallow said softly.Then the king stretched out his hand and helped Maia jump off the swallow's back.

"I have been waiting for you for a long time," he said, "and now you are here at last, and you will be my queen."

Maya smiled and stood beside the king.At this time, all the fairies who lived among the flowers brought her gifts, the most special of which were those delicate blue tulle wings, which allowed Maia to fly with them.

In this way, little Maya did not marry the mole, but became queen.The fairies formed a circle round her and danced, and the swallows sang the wedding march.

(End of this chapter)