Lilac Fairy Book

Chapter 15 Little Lacey

Once upon a time there was a little boy named Lars.He was still very young, so people called him Little Lacey.He was a brave little fellow, for he sailed around the world in a pea pod boat.

It was early summer and the pea pods in the garden were long and green.Little Lacey stole into the bean bed, where the peas grew much taller than his hat.He picked 17 of the longest, straightest large pea pods he could find.

Little Lacey thought no one saw him, but that was very foolish, for God saw everything that happened everywhere.

Then the gardener came with his gun and heard something rustling in the bean bed.

"I think it must be a sparrow," said he, "whoosh! hohhh!" "Wait! I'm going to load up and shoot you sparrows," said the gardener.

Little Lacey was frightened, and crawled out of the garden onto the road.

"Forgive me, dear gardener!" said he, "I was only looking for some pretty boats."

"Well, I'll spare you this time," said the gardener. "Next time, little Lacey must ask permission before going to the bean patch to look for a boat."

"I will," Lacey replied, and walked toward the shore.He wedged the pods open with a nail, split them carefully in two, and folded the straw into small pieces to make the rower's seat.Then he took the peas out of their pods, and loaded them as a cargo in the little boats.Some pods were split open, others were left intact.After everything was ready, Lacey had 12 boats.Those are not small boats, but large ships.He owned three liners, three frigates, three brigs and three schooners.The largest liner was named Hercules and the smallest schooner the Flea.Little Lacey put all 12 boats into the water.Like a big ship, the boat floats on the waves mighty and majestic.

Now, the ships are going around the world.That big island over there is Asia, that big rock is Africa, that small island is America, those little rocks are Polynesia, and that coast from which the ship sails is Europe.The whole fleet set off, sailing far and wide to all parts of the world.The cruise ship sailed to Asia along a straight line, the frigate sailed to Africa, the brig to America, the schooner to Polynesia, and Little Lacey stayed in Europe and threw small stones into the sea.

There was a real boat on the coast of Europe, a beautiful boat painted white, that belonged to his father.Little Lacey got into the boat.His father and mother did not allow him to go on the boat alone, but little Lacey didn't take it seriously, and he wanted to travel to other parts of the world.

"I'll row the boat out a little, just a little," he thought.The pod boats were far away and looked like little dots floating in the sea. "I'm going to scoop up Hercules off the coast of Asia," Lacey said, "and paddle back to Europe."

He shook the rope that tied the boat, and strangely enough, the rope let go.After all, a man is a man, and so little Lacey was aboard the boat.

Now he was going to row—and he could, for he used to row on the steps of the house, using the steps for a boat, and his father's big cane for an oar.However, when little Lacey wanted to row the boat, he found that there were no oars in the boat.The oars were locked in the boathouse, and little Lacey did not notice that the boat was empty.Without oars, rowing a boat to Asia is not as easy as we might think.

What was little Lacey to do now?The ship was a good distance out to sea, and the wind from the land was blowing it farther and farther.Lacey got scared and started crying.There was no one on the shore, no one could hear his cries.There was only one big crow on the shore, sitting alone on the birch tree, and the gardener's black cat sat under the birch tree, waiting to catch the crow.None of them felt the slightest bit uneasy about little Lacey, who was drifting out to sea.

what!How regretful little Lacey was!My parents often warned me not to go on the boat alone, but I was disobedient and ran on the boat without authorization.It was too late now for him to get back to shore.Perhaps he will be lost at sea.What should he do?

He shouted until he was tired of shouting, and no one heard him.He put his little hands together, and said, "Good God, don't be angry with little Lacey," and fell asleep.Although it was daytime at this time, but old Naku?Matt was still sitting on the shore of Sleepy Country, catching little kids with his long fishing rod.He heard what little Lacey whispered to God, and at once he led the boat to him, and laid little Lacey to sleep on a bed made of rose petals.

Next, Naku?Matt said to a dream, "Go and play with little Lacey, so he won't be alone."

It was a little dream boy, very, very small, even younger than Lacey.He had blue eyes and fair hair, and wore a red hat with a silver band, and a white coat with pearls on the collar.He went up to little Lacey and said, "Do you want to sail around the world?"

"Yes," Lacey said in her sleep, "I think so."

"Then, come on," Mengtong said, "let us go on a long voyage in your pod boat. You will take the Hercules, and I will take the Flea."

So they set sail from "Sleeping Country".In a short while, the Hercules and the Flea were sailing on the coast of Asia on the other side of the world.There, the sea of ​​ice flows through the Bering Strait into the Pacific Ocean.In the winter mist, they could see explorer Nordenskward and his ship Vega struggling to find a gap in the ice in the distance.It was cold, very cold, and the huge icebergs shone with a strange light.At the moment, huge whales live under those ice blocks because they can't punch holes in the ice with their clumsy heads.Around the drab coast, as far as the eye could see, there was nothing but snow, and little gray men in shaggy furs walked about and ran across the snow in little sledges drawn by dogs.

"Are we going ashore here?" Meng Tong asked.

"No," said little Lacey, "I am very afraid of the whales swallowing us up, and of the big dogs biting us. Let us sail to the rest of the world."

"Okay," said Mengtong, who was wearing a red cap with a silver strap, "it's not far to America." At that moment, they came to America.

The sun was shining brightly and it was very warm.There are long rows of tall coconut trees on the coast, with coconuts on the tops of the trees.Copper-skinned men galloped across the vast green prairies and shot arrows at the bison, who turned and held back the red men with their sharp horns.A gigantic cobra had climbed up the trunk of a tall palm tree and was about to pounce on a small camel grazing at the foot of the tree.It snapped down and killed the little camel.

"Are we going ashore here?" Meng Tong asked.

"No," said little Lacey, "I am terribly afraid of the buffalo horning us, and the snake eating us. Let us sail to the rest of the world."

"Okay," said Dreamboy in the white coat, "it's only a short trip to Polynesia." And so they came to Polynesia.

It was so hot there, it was like taking a Finnish bath.Expensive spice plants grow on the coast: pepper, cinnamon, ginger, saffron, coffee and tea.A brown-skinned native with long ears, thick lips, and a hideously painted face was hunting a yellow-spotted tiger among the tall bamboo forests on the coast.

The tiger turned to face them and dug its claws into one of the natives, and the others scattered.

"Are we going ashore here?" Meng Tong asked.

"No," said little Lacey, "don't you see that tiger by that pepper tree? Let's sail to the rest of the world."

"Of course," said the blue-eyed Mengtong, "we are not far from Africa." Before they finished speaking, they arrived in Africa.

They dropped anchor at the mouth of a great river, where the shore was as green as the greenest velvet.Not far from that river, a vast desert stretches away.The sky was yellow, and the sun was scorching the ground, as if it was going to burn the earth to ashes.The people there are as black as the blackest jet.They rode tall camels across the desert.The lion roared with thirst, and the crocodile with its gray head like a lizard and sharp white teeth opened its mouth and looked up from the river.

"Are we going ashore here?" Meng Tong asked.

"No," said little Lacey, "the sun will burn us, and the lions and crocodiles will eat us. Let us sail to the rest of the world."

"We can drive back to Europe," said the blond-haired Mengtong.No sooner had they finished speaking than they returned to Europe.

They came to a coast, where it was cool and cool, and everything was so familiar and friendly.There stood the tall birch tree with its drooping leaves, and on top of it the old crow was perched, and at the foot of the tree the gardener's black cat walked quietly up and down.Not far away was a house that little Lacey had seen before, and beside it was a vegetable garden with a bed of peas in long pods.The old gardener walked about the garden in his green coat, wondering if the cucumbers were ripe.Frykes was barking on the steps, and wagging his tail when he saw little Lacey.Old Stina was milking the cows in the yard when a lady he knew very well in a check woolen shawl went up to the bleach vat to see if the cloth was bleached.There was also a well-known gentleman in a yellow summer coat, with a long pipe dangling from his mouth, who was going to see if the workmen had cut the rye.A boy and a girl ran down to the seashore and called, "Little Lacey! Go home and eat your bread and butter!"

"Are we going ashore here?" Mengtong asked mischievously.

"Come with me, and I'll ask mother to feed you bread, butter, and milk," said little Lacey.

"Wait a moment." Meng Tong said.Immediately, then, little Lacey saw the kitchen door open, and there came a low, pleasant creaking sound like the one we make when we ladle butter into a hot frying-pan.

"Maybe we should drive back to Polynesia now?" Mengtong said happily.

"No, they're making omelettes in Europe right now," said little Lacey.He wanted to jump to the shore, but couldn't.Mengtong tied him with a chain made of flowers, so he couldn't move.At this time, all the little dream boys came to him, thousands of children formed a circle around him, and sang a song:

The world is very, very wide,

Lacey, little Lacey,

Though you sailed through the tide,

but you'll never know
How wide is the other side of the Atlantic Ocean,

Lacey, little Lacey.

You find that the world is hot and cold,
Lacey, little Lacey,

But God is everywhere,
Lacey, little Lacey.

There are many people all over the world,

They are all God's people,

Lacey, little Lacey.

When angels guide you,
Lacey, little Lacey,

you won't be hurt,

even in the wild

the other side of the world.

Now, tell us,
as you roam,

did you ever find out

Among the continents you have seen,
Home is the best place,

Lacey, little Lacey?

The dream boys hopped and ran away after they finished singing.Naku?Matt put Lacey back in the boat.He lay there motionless for a long time.The squeak of the frying pan on the stove at home still rang in his ears, so clearly that little Lacey heard it very close to him.Just like that, he woke up, rubbing his eyes.

He still lay in that boat, where he fell asleep.The wind had changed direction, and while little Lacey was asleep, a gust of wind blew the boat out to sea, and a gust of wind blew it ashore again.

The creaking sound Lacey heard from the pan turned out to be the soft gurgling of the waves breaking over the reef and shore.But he was not quite mistaken, for the clear blue sea was like a great pan in which the sun of God cooked pancakes for good boys all day long.

Little Laixi rubbed her eyes to drive away the drowsiness, and looked around.Everything was still the same: the crow sat on the birch tree, the cat sat on the grass, the pod fleet moored on the shore.Some boats sank and some drifted back to shore.The Hercules returned from Asia with her cargo, and the Flea returned from Polynesia and other parts of the world they had previously visited.

Little Lacey didn't know what to make of it.He used to go to that cave in Sleepyland, not knowing what tricks those dreamboys could do.Little Lacey was not troubled by such things, and he packed up the pod boat and walked ashore to go home.

His older brothers and sisters ran out to meet him, calling from a distance, "Where have you been all this time, Lacey? Come home and eat your bread and butter." There was a strange creaking sound.

Gardeners watered dill, coriander, carrots and parsnips by the gate.

"Oh," he asked, "where has little Lacey been all this time?"

Little Lacey stood up straight and answered, "I've sailed around the world in a pod boat."

"Oh!" said the gardener.

The gardener has forgotten Dreamland, but you have not forgotten it and know it is still there.You know the beautiful caves, those gleaming silver walls that never lose their brilliance, those diamonds that never fade, those soft music that never stops in the good evenings.In dreams full of joy, those light and happy fairies are never old, they are forever young like the bright stars above our heads.Perhaps you may have caught a glimpse of their light and graceful wings as they fluttered beside your pillow.Perhaps you have met the aforementioned little dreamer with the blue eyes and blond hair, the red hat with the silver straps, and the white coat with the pearls on the collar.Maybe he also took you to see various countries and peoples in the world, saw those cold and desolate places and hot deserts, saw many colored people and all kinds of beasts in the sea and forests, so that you can increase your knowledge , and finally returned home happily.Yes, who knew?Perhaps you too have sailed around the wide world in a pod boat.

(End of this chapter)