ten

“Now that we have a doll kitten,” said Sylva when Poppy came over the next morning, “we need some doll fairies to go with her.”

“You’re right,” said Poppy. “Too bad it’s not summer. We’d be eating corn on the cob. And we could save the corn husks to make dolls.”

“I think there might be some corn husks in the mud room,” said Sylva. “Clara hangs flowers and plants there to dry. She might have saved some husks. You never know with her.”

Sure enough, next to a posy of lavender drying from the rafters, not far from the rose hips and herbs and flowers drying for pots of fairy tea, and just behind a sheaf of pussy willows, there was a bunch of corn husks.

“Perfect!” said Poppy. She carefully took down the husks and turned to her friend. “We’d better get some water from the spring to soak these in,” she said. “Then we’ll be able to twist them into shapes.”

“This sounds pretty tricky,” said Sylva. “We could just make twig-fairies instead.” Sylva’s craft projects sometimes didn’t turn out quite the way she hoped they would.

“Tricky but worth it,” said Poppy. “Let’s give it a try.”

“As long as you do the hard parts!” said Sylva.

“I will, I promise,” said Poppy. They did their secret best-friends handshake: two shakes, a spin around, and three wing touches. “Iris showed me how to make dolls out of corn husks last summer,” said Poppy.

“I think Clara showed me, too,” said Sylva, “but I forgot!”

“What did I show you?” asked Clara, flying into the fairy house. She was carrying a bucket of water, which she set down without spilling a drop. She saw the sheaf of husks in Poppy’s hands. “Oh! I bet you’re making corn-husk fairies. May I help?”

“You already have,” said Poppy. “We were just going to get some water, but now we don’t need to.”

It wasn’t long before Iris and Susan Flower joined in, stopping on their way to plant some flowers in the queen’s cutting garden.

“Fairy dolls!” said Iris.

“I loved doing this when I was just a little fairy like you two,” said Susan.

“We’re not little!” said Poppy and Sylva together.

Then Goldie and her best friend, Avery, showed up. Avery said she would make the dolls some clothes, and Goldie insisted on glitter for their wings. “Otherwise, they’re so drab!” she said.

Rosy and Squeak came in from their morning stroll.

“Lolo,” said Squeak in a small voice.

“Oh, Squeak, of course you’re sad,” said Rosy. “There’s no baby fairy!” So she and Squeakie got to work on a (very lopsided) baby fairy doll. Between twisting the stalks and tying the knots and cutting the ends to make everything look nice and even, there was a lot to do. But not one of the fairies wanted to stop, except for a quick break for cookies and rose-hip tea.

When at last all the snippets of twine and glitter and cloth had been swept away, and the corn-husk dolls were all assembled in the fairy dollhouse, Sylva, Poppy, and their sisters sat back proudly to look at their work.

“It’s a fairy-doll family,” said Poppy.

“Ahhma,” said Squeak.

“Yes,” said Sylva. “Almost like magic.”