Once upon a time, there was a good old woman who lived in a little house. She had in her garden a bed of beautiful striped tulips. One night, the old woman looked closely and she saw, standing by each tulip, a little Fairy mother who was crooning and rocking the flower like a cradle, while in each tulip-cup lay a little Fairy baby laughing and playing.The good old woman stole quietly back to her house and from that time on she never picked a tulip, nor allowed her neighbours to touch the flowers.
The tulips grew daily brighter in colour and larger in size and gave out a delicious perfume like that of roses. They began to bloom all the year round too. The day came when the good old woman died and the tulip-bed was torn up by folks. Parsley was planted there instead of the flowers. But parsley along with all the other plants in the garden, and from that time nothing would grow there. But the good old woman’s grave grew beautiful, for the fairies sang above it, and kept it green.
