"I was awfully tired. I might have been drowsy.
I don't know for sure. I only remember that
something strange and lovely happened.
"I could hear my mother, 'way off in the house,
singing baby to sleep, and I shut my
eyes for a moment. A flash of light made
me open them quickly, for I thought
it was lightning.

My, wasn't I astonished! There on a rose
stood a sweet little truly fairy, with a
lighted wand in her hand like a star.

"Oh, she was lovely! Her dress was all gauzy,
and her hair was like silver thistle - down.
The moon was coming up behind her,
and it shone through her lovely wings.

"She did not say a word. Fairies in books
always talk, but I was afraid to breathe for
fear she'd blow away. She waved her
little wand over the pansies.

"They nodded more and more, and then
they began to change, until they all
had little faces with a velvet frill
of pansy colors around them.

"There they were among the
green leaves, like dearest little people.
I could hear a whisper among them,
like a rustle of leaves. They were
saying, 'We must hurry, or we will
be late for the ball!'

"Then one by one, in the grass at their
feet came fireflies to light them in the dark.
Pretty soon, they all began to move off in
a line...such a lot of them!...every pansy with
a firefly for a torch.

"Suddenly I looked up where the fairy
flower was. She had flown onto the
head of the line, and was guiding.
And then I could see just their faces
and lights in the grass, when all
at once they were gone.

"I sprang up from my hammock to follow,
for I did so want to see a fairy ball!
But I could only see their tiny lights
in the grass, though I searched all the
way to the house. Mother called me in,
and I told her about it, and we came out
on the veranda and watched the lights
all the evening. But I saw nothing more of
those dear pansy people, or that fairy.

"The pansies looked very like themselves
the next day, but not so real;
and oh! I do wish I could have gone to the ball!"

E. S. Tucker from the book
Buds and Blossoms,circa 1890.

A pansy was used as a love potion by Oberon,
a fairy king. This thought of a pansy was invented by
William Shakespeare.