THE LOVING CUP. 81
found in the neighborhood . All had been changed , by a little patient care , into strong , thrifty shrubs and plants , each blooming according to its own nature , but all gladdening the sight by their bright flowers and healthy green leaves .
This changing of weeds into flowers so surprised and delighted the wood - fairies who had never heard of such a thing , that when her third boy -baby came , they consulted among themselves and decided to send him the best gift they had to bestow . Accordingly they sent to the new baby a loving- cup made of strong, black iron , and with it , three large earthen jars . One was filled with the sweetest golden nectar ever tasted by mortal lips , another contained a brown vinegar so sour that half a teaspoonful of it would make your face wrinkle , while the third jar held a blackish-looking gall , of such a bitter flavor that one drop of it would make one shrink from ever wanting to taste it again . With this strange present they sent word that if the mother loved her boy , whom by the way she had named Philip , she would mix a cupful of the sweet nectar , the sour vinegar and the bitter gall , using half as much vinegar as she did nectar , and half as much gall as vinegar ,
and give it to the boy to drink on his birthday , each year , until he was twenty- one years old .
It seemed so hard The mother hesitated . to make her darling child taste of the bitter gall when there was plenty of the sweet nectar to last until he was grown , but she knew that the wood- fairies were wise . Were they not trying to make the whole earth beautiful ? Surely they would not require so hard a thing of her unless it was for little Philip's welfare . Therefore , each succeeding birthday she mixed the fairies ' drink and poured it into the iron cup and gave it to the child . Sometimes he cried and sometimes he fretted , but she held the cup firmly to his lips until the last drop was drained , and then she would kiss him and tell him that he was her dear , brave boy , and would some day thank her for making him drink the fairies ' potion . He soon found that if he drank the contents of the loving- cup early in the morning , he tasted nothing but the sweet nectar , whereas if he put it off until noon , he could not taste anything but the sour vinegar , and when he delayed the drinking of it until night , it seemed as if the whole contents of the cup had changed to gall , and he would be days
THE LOVING CUP. 83
So and days getting over the bitter taste . being a sensible boy , he learned to drink it as soon as it was mixed .
Each year he grew more loving and thoughtful of others , more like the wood- fairies in his effort to make the world around him beautiful . Little by little he gained the power which the wood- fairies alone can give the wonderful power of knowing just what is going on in the hearts of the people about you , even when you do not speak to them or they to you .
-
If he chanced to meet a sad-faced man or woman on the street , his beautiful eyes seemed to say more tenderly than words could say , " I see you are in trouble and I feel so sorry for you . " If he passed a group of merry makers , his smile was so bright that they knew it meant " What a lot of fun you are having ! I am so glad ! As he grew older his hands became almost as wonderful as his eyes , or his smile . If he found a little child crying over a broken toy he would stop and mend it , and in a few moments the tears would be gone and the little one would go off laughing or singing, hugging his mended toy .
Sometimes a young girl would come to him with a beautiful picture which she had been embroidering on a screen , but which had been
