The fairies had decided to hold a fancy-dress ball, and they had chosen the most beautiful theme imaginable: every fairy would come dressed as a flower.
One came as a red nasturtium, another as a pink rambling rose, another as a golden glow, another as a pansy, another as a forget-me-not. The Fairy Queen herself wore the costume of an American Beauty Rose, and her wand was a single perfect bloom, full and deep red. A group of fairies dressed as honeysuckle vines and wound themselves together so they would look like a real climbing plant. Another group became morning glories.
The crickets played, the fairies danced, and the brownies and elves who had been invited stayed very late.
No one had thought about the bumblebees.
The bumblebees had gone to sleep earlier that evening, as they always did. But in their dreams, they saw what seemed to be morning glories and honeysuckle — exactly the sort of dream a bumblebee would have — and without quite waking up they began to stir.
One bumblebee nudged his smaller brother.
“Look,” he said sleepily. “Morning glories.”
That woke the smaller one, who took one look and woke everyone else. The hummingbirds, who always paid attention to what the bumblebees were up to, opened their eyes and immediately spotted the honeysuckle.
The night air filled with buzzing and hummingbird wings. The fairies felt the arrival of their uninvited guests and began to laugh so hard they lost the rhythm of the dance.
As the bumblebees and hummingbirds drew close enough to see clearly, they understood their mistake. The fairies, still laughing, called out at once:
“Come and join us! Dance with us! We have flower-honey for supper — we couldn’t give a ball dressed as flowers without having flower-honey — and there’s plenty for everyone.”
And there was, and they did.
