[Editor: This short story for children, by Eva Oakley, was published in Real Australian Fairy Stories (1945).]
The Bunyip and the Fairy Queen
Once there lived, in the beautiful Australian bush, a Bunyip, who was very ugly and terrifying to anybody who saw him. One day, when the Fairy Queen was passing by, she heard the Bunyip saying, “Why am I so ugly, while everything around me is so beautiful?”
You see he had nobody to love him, and it made him go away to his den, and scowl in anger about it, which made him even uglier. However, the Fairy Queen was determined to do something for him, so that he would be happy for ever after; so she called her subjects around her, including the Fairy Princes. Well! They all agreed with their Queen to do all they could for the Bunyip.
Away they went, dancing and flying, all through the beautiful bush. “Now,” said the Fairy Queen, “as soon as the Bunyip appears, let us show him that we have no fear on his account, but that we wish to love him; smile at him with charming kindness on your faces, so that he cannot help smiling back at you. Then dance around him, with outstretched arms, welcoming him to join in your dance, while his eyes are still sparkling through smiling. His figure will then become graceful, through this dancing, and then you must offer him lovely, bright clothes.”
Well! They did all this, and the Bunyip became a rougish-eyed Elf, and danced, and laughed, and lived happily with the Fairies for ever after.
Source:
Eva Oakley, Real Australian Fairy Stories, Melbourne: Austral Printing & Publishing Company, [1945], p. 7
Editor’s notes:
rougish = characteristic of someone who is mischievous in a playful way, or who behaves badly or recklessly, but not with nefarious or harmful intent (the behaviour of a rascal or a scamp); characteristic of someone who is dishonest, unprincipled, or unscrupulous
[Editor: The original text has been separated into paragraphs.]
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