Fixing the Rent
 Yet
Fairies must live. Sunshine and air won’t pay the bills and the rent
collector is a regular caller. A cloud of unhappiness comes over the little
people and they are anxious for the future. ‘Who is to pay the rent? Says
the practical Wendy to the impractical Peter. ‘It is all very well to
have a beautiful home in this Park; but we must find the rent every
Monday’.
A bright thought occurs to one of them – you can guess which it was. They
will consult the Lady of the Bright Eyes, another lover of the little children,
especially the sick and suffering. So they bring into their counsels this noble
person.
The Lady of the Bright Eyes is sympathetic, but her hands are tied, and she
suggests a consultation with the Lord of the Flowing River, that river which
bears on its bosom commerce with the whole world.
My Lord of the River is a person set in authority and his word carries far. He
is not easily convinced. He enquires in practical fashion from Peter whether he
has any money in the Savings Bank. Peter, with an innocent air, replies:
‘What is a Savings Bank?’ which gives his impecunious state and his
knowledge of high finance away.
There is no advantage in arguing the point, so the Lord of the River makes a
virtue of necessity. Ordering his faithful servant to place on record the fact
that so long as Peter love Wendy and allows the fairies to visit her on her
birthday, which promise Peter makes in solemn affirmation, they shall be
allowed to live rent free in their beautiful home.
Not satisfied even with this answer, Wendy, the careful and persistent
housewife, wants documentary evidence. So the Lord of the Flowing River and the
Lady of the Bright Eyes hasten to put the matter beyond all doubt, and paint on
an adjacent board the magic words, ‘Rent Free’, adding the seal of
the birds of the river as a mark of good faith.
But favours must be reciprocated -that is a big word – but most of you
will understand. And so Wendy insists on making a presentation to the Lord of
the Flowing River and Peter insists on making a similar presentation to the
Lady of the Bright Eyes. And Wendy’s stock of thimbles is reduced by two
and the bond of friendship is forever established.
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