Little Poems in Prose

mine his fate and to become as well the source of his misfortune as of all his happiness. The poor Fairies were extremely busy, for the crowd of clients was great, and their mid- dle kingdom, placed as it was between man and God, is like us ruled by the terrible law of Time, and of its infinite posterity,—days, hours, minutes, and seconds. In good sooth they were flurried as are min- isters on a reception day, or the assistants in the Government pawn-shop when a national festival allows redemptions without interest. I even believe that from time to time they watched the hand of the clock with as much impatience as human judges who, in session since the morning, cannot prevent themselves from thinking of dinner, of their families, and of their comfortable slippers. If in supernatural justice there is a little hastiness and luck, let us not be surprised that it should sometimes be the same with human justice, for in that case we ourselves should be unjust judges. Thus some blunders were committed on this day, which one might consider very strange if prudence rather than caprice were the distinc- tive and necessary character of the fairy folk. Thus, the power of drawing fortune mag- netically to himself was given to the sole heir of a very rich family, who, not being endowed