Fairy Orchard.

Fairy Orchard.

A large part of the forest, her Majesty the Queen of all Fairyland decided to turn into a large orchard. In this orchard there would be all of the fruit trees that grow in Europe. Apples, pears, plums, cherries of all kinds, and many bushes such as gooseberries and many different kinds of currant red black not forgetting a large row of grape-vines Nut trees of different kinds were also to be planted in the orchard.

To do the work of clearing the trees and shrubs to make such an orchard possible Her Majesty had asked the Elves and the Leprechauns to help with the clearing of the trees and large stones. Their was no magic to be used it all had to be done by hand. This did not bother the Leprechauns all were used to hard work but the Elves complained to do all of this work and not to use magic it would take years.

The Leprechauns walked to the large area of forest and talked about what would be the best way of tackling the work involved. It was decided to chop down all of the trees and then clear away the many huge stones that lay around the forest floor. Axes were sharpened; saws were got ready and the Leprechauns working in pairs chopped down one tree after another. The work of sawing the trees into logs so that they could easily be used and moved away from the soon to be orchard it was agreed would be done by the Elves.

Day after day went by with the Leprechauns chopping down tree after tree. The Elves not to be in the way of the falling trees were to saw the tree trunks at night. The Elves asked the Fairies to help them by giving them their magic wands. Trunk after trunk could easily be sawn into logs by using magic. The Fairies refused to help with magic as her Majesty had forbidden its use.

Soon one fairy after another complained that they had lost their magic wand or it had been stolen. The Elves had stolen the magic wands and used them to saw the tree trunks. Each tree that the Leprechauns chopped down was on the very next day a pile of logs. The logs were then taken by the Farmers and piled up ready for firewood for the winter. The first farmer to find the cut up logs told all of his friends who also came to forest for this very cheap wood for the winter fires.

Her Majesty often came by and watched the busy Leprechauns, she was pleased how fast they worked and the ringing out of a Leprechauns voice of Timber as each tree fell pleased Her Majesty. Soon the Fairies that had, had their magic wands stolen by the elves went to her Majesty and told her of the loss of their magic wands. Her Majesty soon knew who had stolen the magic wands and decided to punish the Elves for not obeying her orders that no magic was to be used in the making of the huge orchard with its many fruit trees.

The chopping down of the trees came to an end the Leprechauns went to the stables and fields of those Farmers that taken firewood and led the horses with their ploughs to the now cleared forest and soon the whole area had been ploughed and the first trees were planted then the grape-vines and all of the fruit trees. Black and red currants, the gooseberry bushes were soon arranged in neat rows.

Spring, summer, autumn and winter soon passed and in the following spring all were delighted to see the first green buds on the young trees. This would indeed be a wonderful orchard with all of its fruit and nut trees. Then all realised there were no nut trees. Her Majesty knowing how much the Elves liked nuts had as a fitting punishment made sure that no nuts trees would grow in this orchard. The Elves on hearing and seeing that no nut trees had been planted were very disappointed and started to blame each other for using the stolen wands from the Fairies to saw up the tree trunks.

Some of the Elves went to Her Majesty and said they were sorry for stealing the magic wands and for using magic for sawing up the tree trunks. As a sign of the silliness of the Elves Her Majesty planted one nut tree at the four corners of the orchard. If you think that the nut trees were for the repenting Elves. No I am sorry to have to tell you that the four nut trees were for the wild animals such as the birds and the squirrels. Her Majesty did not want to hurt any animal or bird.