In the middle of a deep forest stood a stump. It was the only one far and wide. Around it grew ferns and here and there a mushroom appeared. Every evening, a fairy sat on that stump. She was very small. When an adult walked by, all he could see was a little light on the stump. But he couldn’t tell it was a fairy.
One day Caroline walked by. A little pigtailed girl from a nearby village. She was walking through the forest, looking for mushrooms and blueberries. It was beginning to be evening and Caroline was getting tired. She decided to sit on the nearest stump for a while before going home.
She was about to lean back to rest when suddenly she heard a voice. “Watch out, what are you doing? It’s me. Oh yeah. This happens to me all the time. I’m so small no one can see me.” Caroline jumped up, looking for who was talking to her. It wasn’t until after a moment that she saw the tiny fairy on the stump. She was sitting there, her head down, crying. She was very sad, “I’m sorry I didn’t see you, but I didn’t mean to hurt you. Why are you crying? What happened?”
The fairy raised her head, looked at Caroline, wiped her tears and began to explain. “I’m sad because I’m little. The smallest of all the fairies here in the forest. I can’t even go dancing with them at night by the pond because I don’t jump up as high at the dance as the other fairies. I’m just small and I can’t do it. So instead, I sit here on the stump every night, alone.”
Caroline felt sorry for the fairy. She took it gently in her hand. She stroked her and said, “It doesn’t matter that you’re small. I am the smallest of all the children I know. But you can still do great things. We’ll practice together. I’ll come here every day and we’ll dance together and you’ll learn to jump as high as you need to. You’ll see you can do it.”
From then on, Caroline went to the forest every day. The fairy showed her the dance, and Caroline practiced with her very hard, giving her advice on how to bounce. They practiced spins and lifts, stretching honestly and getting better. It was hard, but neither gave up.
After a few weeks, the big day arrived. The fairy was going to dance by the pond with the others. She was going to show them that she could do anything. Caroline came to support her as good friends do and also wanted to see how she would do. She sat down near the pond. It was dark all around. Suddenly the moon lit up the whole pond. The gentle wind brought a beautiful melody and the fairies began to dance on the pond. One of them was the smallest, but she did a wonderful job. Even the last and hardest turn with a jump was good. You could see how happy the fairy was. After the dance Caroline ran to her and hugged her warmly. “See, you did it.” She praised her. “Thank you for believing in me and helping me.” The fairy replied gratefully.
Caroline went to the pond every evening after that and watched her friend dance beautifully. Each time she realized that even someone small can do great things.
